Where the Snowflakes Fall
by bandgeek63
Summary: Sequel to The Girl Behind the Door: Elsa and Johan have both moved on with their lives after their childhood romance. But when they meet again at Johan's sister's wedding, neither of them can figure out whether the feelings they held for each other when they were 14 still exist. But amidst their struggle, a mysterious plot against them begins to reveal itself...
1. Prologue

**A/N: Hello there and welcome to "Where the Snowflakes Fall". For those of you who read "The Girl Behind the Door", I'm going to start by saying I'm SOOOOOOO sorry this took so long! I was trying to finish the story before I posted it, but it's been taking me a lot longer than expected. But when realized how long it was taking me, I promised myself that as soon as school was over I'd start posting what I had. So here I am! I just got home from my last day of school (FINALLY!) and I've brought you the prologue. The only problem is that since this story isn't done I'm hoping I can stay ahead of myself. No promises but I'll try my best!**

**For those of you who are new here, thanks for checking this out. Since this is a sequel, I would recommend reading "The Girl Behind the Door" before you read this story. I mean, you don't _have _to, but I would if you don't want to be confused.**

**Now before you write to complain that this prologue is the exact same thing as the epilogue of TGBtD, I know! I am merely using it as an introduction. The first real chapter will be posted tomorrow. But for now, I would like to present you "Where the Snowflakes Fall".**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen. I am only 15.**

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_Previously…_

Queen Elsa sat at her desk in her study, going through countless stacks of paperwork.

It had been almost half a year since the Great Thaw, and Elsa had grown accustomed to the people and to her powers. She enjoyed finally getting to spend some time with her sister, and she _knew_ that Anna enjoyed it too.

Elsa couldn't believe how quickly her sister had grown up. Anna and Kristoff had been in a steady relationship for months, and Elsa had this sneaking suspicion that it wouldn't be long before Kristoff proposed. Elsa was fully ready to give them her blessing when the time came.

A knock at the door broke Elsa out of her thoughts.

"Come in," she said.

The door opened and Anna skipped in merrily.

"Hey, Elsa!" she said.

"Hi, Anna," Elsa replied. "What are you doing here? I thought you were with Kristoff."

"He had to go do something for work," Anna explained. "So it's just you and me tonight! You want to go out and do something?"

"Maybe in a little bit," the queen replied. "I need to finish this paperwork, but then we can do something."

Anna flopped down into the chair across from Elsa and sighed. "_Fine,_" she huffed. Elsa couldn't help but laugh a little at her melodramatic sister.

Another knock came at the door.

"Come in."

A servant opened the door and approached the queen's desk.

"A letter, your majesty," he said holding out an envelope.

"Thank you," Elsa said, taking the letter and putting it aside on the desk as the servant walked out.

Elsa returned to her paperwork as Anna eyed the letter curiously. She picked it up and read the front before proceeding to open it.

"It's rude to read the queen's mail, Anna," Elsa scolded.

"I'm sorry, but it says 'To the Royal Family of Arendelle,'" Anna said, "and that includes me!"

Elsa rolled her eyes as Anna unfolded the letter.

"Ooo! We've been invited to a wedding in a couple of weeks," Anna exclaimed.

Elsa looked up from her paperwork, smiling. "How exciting!" she replied. "I think we could use a vacation."

"I've never been to a wedding before!" Anna mused.

"Neither have I," the queen replied. "So this should be a learning experience for the both of us."

"Can Kristoff come too?"

"Yes of course, Anna. He is a member of this family, too."

"Yay!" the princess exclaimed joyfully.

Elsa sighed as Anna continued to read the letter.

"Who is this wedding for, anyway?" Elsa asked.

Suddenly, Elsa didn't need to hear Anna's response as she noticed the seal on the envelope. She thought her heart stopped as Anna answered her question.

"Princess Leah of Landvik."

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**Just a note: I'm planning to keep my normal updating schedule (which is Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays), but Tuesdays and Thursdays are when I have marching band practice at night. Since it's summer, that _shouldn't _affect this, but if it does become a problem, the update schedule may change. I'll let you know if that happens. But in the meantime, I'll see you all tomorrow!**

_**Read on, write on dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, favorites and follows! I always find it astonishing how much activity I can get in one day. And once again, thank you to all my old followers for being so patient.**

**This chapter re-introduces Johan and introduces some of his family and friends. Some of the new characters in this chapter will play very significant roles later in the story, so read and review! :-D**

**Disclaimer: I don't _think _I own Frozen...**

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Johan strode around the halls of the castle as he watched servants hang decorations for the wedding. He was on his way to see his sister in her dress for the first time.

No one had been surprised when Leah suddenly was walking around with a ring on her finger. She had been going out with Prince Isak of Haugen for quite some time now, and everyone knew it wouldn't be long before Isak popped the question.

Walking through the great hall, he watched as the orchestra packed up and left from their rehearsal. Curious, he walked over and looked at the music that the flute player had left on his stand. Looking over it, he nodded satisfactorily to himself at the difficulty of the part.

"Nice," he said to himself before moving on.

As he walked out of the great hall toward his destination, three ecstatic seventeen-year-old girls suddenly ran past him.

"Come on!" one of them called to her friends. Johan knew that voice. It was his little sister Julie. And unsurprisingly, running after her were her two closest friends, Olivia and Mari.

As he turned the corner after them, Johan could hear their excited voices coming from the dressing room.

"Oh Leah, you look gorgeous!"

"He's a lucky guy!"

Johan knocked on the door.

"Can I come in?" he called.

"It's open, Johan," he heard Leah reply.

Opening the door, he saw his sister standing on a pedestal in the most beautiful gown he had ever seen. The crown on her head glowed with jewels, and through her veil you could see her long auburn hair draping behind her. Around her neck was a necklace that Johan knew had been their mother's, and the emerald in the center matched her eyes.

"Wow," Johan said, shaking his head. "I-I'm speechless. I don't even know what to say!"

Leah chuckled. "I'll give you a hint: the correct response would be, 'You look beautiful, Leah! You are the best sister I could ever hope to have!'" she teased.

Johan chuckled and rolled his eyes. As he opened his mouth to say something, the door burst open as a young guard, Johan's best friend, Noah Jacobsen, ran into the room panting.

"Sorry I'm late, I- wow..." he said as he caught sight if Leah. "That is one heck of a dress!"

Johan smiled and shook his head at his friend's lack of formality. He was so close to their family that none of them really cared. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Julie blushing, and Olivia and Mari each nudged her in the shoulder.

"Thank you, Noah," Leah chuckled.

Suddenly, the royal seamstress stepped forward.

"Alright, now you've all gotten to see her in the dress," she said. "Now I've got to get her out of it! Out, out, out, out, out!"

She gestured for them all to leave, and they all knew better than to protest. The three girls walked along merrily as the boys trailed behind them.

"I hope there are some cute guys at this wedding!" Olivia said.

"Yeah, maybe some princes will be willing to dance with us!" Mari agreed.

"Well, I couldn't tell you how many princes are going to be at the wedding," Julie said, "but I'm sure there will be some."

"Well, what kingdoms' royal families are invited?" Olivia asked.

"Well, let see," Julie said. "There's the royal family of Corona, the royal family of the Northern Isles, the royal family of Arendelle-"

Johan looked up at the mention of the last one. Noah noticed, and nudged his friend in the shoulder. But before Julie could continue her list, Mari interrupted her.

"What!?"

"They invited the queen of Arendelle!?" Olivia said.

Johan wasn't surprised by this outburst. Landvik had been hit hard by the queen's eternal winter that summer, and the whole kingdom had been gossiping about her ever since.

"Yeah, I know! Can you believe it?" Julie said, playing along.

"Aren't they afraid she's gonna, like, freeze everybody?" Mari asked.

"Yeah," Olivia agreed. "I always thought that she would freeze everything in her path!"

"She's misunderstood!" Johan snapped, having heard enough.

The girls finally looked back at him. He looked at the floor instead of looking at them.

"What?" Mari said.

"She didn't mean to freeze everything this summer! Remember?"

"Sure, she _says_ that!" Olivia said. "Lord knows if she meant it!"

"Don't mind him," Julie said. "He's just a little defensive of Queen Elsa."

Olivia looked at Johan again and shook her head. "Why?" she said.

"Oh, he's met her," Julie said.

"No way! Really?" Mari said.

"Yeah," Julie replied, ignoring the warning looks that her brother was sending her. "When our father took him on a trip to Arendelle about seven years ago."

"He actually talked to her?" Olivia asked.

"Yeah," Julie said. "And he kissed her!"

"I did not!" Johan lied. He secretly thanked his lucky stars that he could keep a straight face when he lied.

The two girls stared at him agape. "Oh my gosh! Did you really?" Mari said.

"No," Julie answered for him. "I'm just kidding. He just said that she was really pretty. That's all."

"Aww!" the girls cooed.

Johan brushed them off and walked past them toward his room, with Noah in tow. He could hear them giggling as he turned the corner.

"Just ignore them, man. They're being stupid," Noah said.

"Aww, forget about it," Johan replied. "I never thought Julie would actually tell them about the kiss without pinning on that she was kidding. She knows I'd come after her if she did."

Noah laughed. "Well, maybe you'll see her again at the wedding."

"Yeah," the prince shrugged. "Maybe."

Noah chuckled at how much his friend was blushing and gave him a nudge on the shoulder. "Well, I have to go. I'll catch up with you later."

"Okay," Johan said as Noah ran past him.

Entering his room, Johan opened the drawer next to his bed. He pulled out the ice snow globe that Elsa had given him so long ago. It wasn't until this summer that he finally understood what her message had meant. He thought about it again as he held the snow globe in his hands:

_When you stare into the crystal ball,_

_You'll find me where the snowflakes fall._

Now, after the events of that summer, he finally understood as he stared at the ball in front of him. The snowflake statue in the center was supposed to represent her, and her powers, and the snowflakes fell on top of it.

He remembered those nights, holding her hand under the door, begging her to come out. It satisfied him now to know why she wouldn't come out. But now, he was unsure about seeing her again, since it had been so long.

_It seems so long ago, how young and innocent we were. She may not remember me, but I remember her._

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**_Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63_**


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Alright, I've gotta do this fast before my internet goes out again, so here's chapter 2!**

**Disclaimer: I wouldn't trust myself with the rights to Frozen. Would you?**

* * *

Surrounded by her guards, Elsa gracefully walked off the ship, with Kristoff and an overly-excited Anna in tow.

Looking around, she began to take in her new surroundings. She had always heard that Landvik was beautiful, and it was. It kind of reminded her of home, in a way. It actually looked somewhat similar to Arendelle, with its expansive fjord and cobblestone streets, with the high point being the towering castle.

Elsa had been looking forward to this wedding as a way to get out of the castle, but she couldn't help but feel on edge as she walked through the crowd of royals that were arriving. She just had to stop thinking about him...

"It'll be nice to see Prince Johan again, won't it Elsa?"

Snapping out of her daze, Elsa turned to her sister. "Huh?"

A look of realization crossed over Anna's face. "Oh wait, you didn't actually meet him, did you?" she said.

"Who?"

"Prince Johan. When he and his father came to Arendelle several years ago, you stayed in your room the whole time. So I guess you never really met him?"

Elsa hesitated for a moment. "Oh... no."

Anna didn't catch the lie as Elsa looked back in front of her and bit her lip. She had never told Anna about the secret relationship that she had briefly shared with Johan. It hadn't really crossed her mind until they got the invitation for the wedding, and she was afraid of how Anna would react.

Bringing herself back to the present, Elsa began to notice that people were staring at her. She knew why. Even though she hadn't worn one of her ice dresses, the dress she wore was still her trademark icy blue. With her long, nearly white hair put against that color, it only took one look for people to know she was the Snow Queen.

Anna began to notice this too. "Is it me," she said, "or are we getting weird looks?"

Elsa sighed and looked back at her sister. "No, Anna, _I'm_ getting weird looks," she said.

For a second Anna looked confused, before she realized what Elsa meant.

"Oh," the princess said. "Well... just ignore them. They just don't know what to think..."

"You guys are sure they're not looking at me, right?" Kristoff spoke up.

Anna laughed. He did look somewhat strange wearing a royal uniform, but that was just because they were so used to seeing him in his rugged winter-wear. Only they could tell that he was uncomfortable. To anyone else, he looked like any other nobleman.

"Yes," Anna reassured her boyfriend, "I'm sure they're not looking at you!"

Elsa smiled at them as they approached the chapel. She was sure that this would not be the last wedding she would attend in the near future.

Inside the chapel, they filed into a pew, and Elsa sat all the way on the end, away from the middle aisle. She heard the sounds of joyful conversation all around her, but she tuned it out and stared up at the stained-glass window on the wall next to her.

It had been almost eight years since she had last seen Johan. At the time, he was the only friend she'd had in a long time, and it was by far the only time she'd ever kissed a boy. For all that it mattered now, he may well not remember her, but she could certainly understand that. After all, once the residual feelings she had for him after he left had somewhat worn off, she hadn't thought of it again until they received the wedding invitation.

As if on cue, the orchestra started playing, and the wedding participants walked down the aisle. First the groom, Prince Isak. As he took his spot at the altar, Elsa couldn't help but notice how difficult it was for him to keep a straight face. He looked _really_ nervous.

Then, after the bridal carpet was rolled out, the bridesmaids and groomsmen began to walk in. Elsa couldn't see them very well from where she was sitting, but she had a feeling he was among them.

At the end of the two lines were the best man, who was clearly Prince Isak's brother, and the maid of honor, who Elsa supposed was the bride's sister. Although, the girl didn't look much like Johan, since her hair was auburn instead of brown.

After the flower girls and ring bearer made their way past, people gasped as they finally got their first view of the bride walking down the aisle. As Elsa saw the princess, her suspicions of the maid of honor being her sister were confirmed. Princess Leah wore a breathtaking wedding gown, with a long veil that draped over her auburn hair. Her emerald necklace matched her eyes perfectly, and everyone was in awe of her beauty.

Accompanying her was her father, King Magnus. In him, Elsa could see the resemblance to Johan that she couldn't see in the princesses.

As Leah arrived at the altar, she took Isak's hand and handed her bouquet to her sister as the king sat down. When the orchestra finished their song, the priest began to speak.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today..."

Elsa zoned out as the ceremony continued. She could hear the words that were being said, but she wasn't listening to them. As she watched the ceremony, her mind began to wander, and she imagined her own fairy tale wedding, to her own Prince Charming.

The scary thing was, she wasn't sure that was ever actually going to happen. She had never been sure, and she could only be sure of it when, or rather _if_, someone puts a ring on her finger.

She had always dreamed of meeting her Prince Charming ever since she was little, and during that magical summer when she was fourteen, she thought she had found it in Johan. But as the years went by, she realized how naive she was at that age. Now she had seen what could happen when you put too much trust into someone you barely know. But she was afraid that being too over-cautious would keep her from finding love in anyone...

Elsa snapped out of her daze as she saw someone staring at her out of the corner of her eye.

Glancing in that direction she saw one of the groomsmen looking at her. He was tall and young, about Elsa's age. He had brown hair, brown eyes, and a clean-shaven face. As her eyes met his, Elsa felt a sense of recognition come to her. She knew that face.

It was him.

A hint of nervousness ran through the queen as the prince stared back at her in disbelief. She feared what his feelings toward her might be now, after all these years. Especially after what happened this summer...

Suddenly the crowd began to cheer, and Elsa saw that Leah and Isak had kissed. As the crowd stood in front of her, Elsa lost sight of Johan. But as she stood and clapped, she thought that maybe it was for the better that they didn't meet tonight. She didn't want to have to pull her head out of the clouds when it was all over. Just like that isolated fourteen-year-old that went head-over-heels for a boy she knew would have to leave...

.:.^*^.:.

Johan tried to hold himself together as he clapped for his sister and new brother-in-law. He couldn't believe what he had just seen. Had it been a ghost? Was he seeing things? Maybe it was simply someone else? But no, there was no mistaking her beauty. She was there.

It was her.

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_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: Personally, I kinda like this chapter. I think it's the most well-written chapter of this story so far. But don't take my word for it! Read and tell me what you think! ;-)**

**Disclaimer: I am a high school girl who is more likely to be found in the band room than anywhere else in the school. I do not own Frozen.**

* * *

Elsa stood by the wall in the Great Hall as she watched Anna and Kristoff dance. She hadn't seen Johan since the wedding, as the wedding participants had not arrived yet.

Right on cue, the song finished and the bridesmaids and groomsmen entered the hall. Following them were the bride and groom, and then the king.

As a servant announced the king, along with the newlywed prince and princess, Elsa noticed Anna and Kristoff walking over to her with drinks in their hands.

"Hey," Anna said cheerfully as she handed Elsa a glass of wine.

The queen raised an eyebrow at the other glass in her sister's hand. "Anna," she scolded, "you know you're too young to drink wine!"

Anna rolled her eyes. "Relax! It's just apple cider."

"Oh," Elsa said. She took a sip of her wine as she looked around at no one in particular. After a few minutes, Anna spoke again.

"Are you alright?" she asked. "You seem awfully quiet."

Elsa looked at her sister and held her breath for a moment. "Yeah," she lied, "I'm fine."

In truth, Elsa was extremely anxious. She knew that she would probably see Johan face-to-face at some point tonight. She just couldn't decide whether she was looking forward to it or completely dreading it.

The crowd that had gathered around the table where the bride and groom were suddenly cheered.

"Hey, they just cut the cake. Do you want to get some?" Anna said.

"No, I'm not hungry," Elsa replied, sitting at the nearest empty table.

Anna huffed at her sister's indifference. "Well I'm going to get some. Come on, Kristoff."

The princess dragged her boyfriend behind her and quickly got to the end of the line to get cake, behind a girl who she recognized had been the maid of honor. The girl seemed to be just a bit younger than Anna, and she talked and laughed with her two friends in front of her.

As she moved up in the line, Anna got her first look at the cake. Her smile fell when she realized that it was vanilla.

"Ugh! No _chocolate_ cake? Really?" she whined.

The girl looked back at her and smiled. "I know," she agreed, "I said the same thing when they made it."

Anna smiled. "It's like, when I was little, whenever my parents asked me what kind of cake I wanted for my birthday, I always thought to myself, 'What kind of question is that? Chocolate!'"

"Same!" the girl replied as she picked up a plate with a piece of cake on it. Her two friends chuckled at her cheerfulness, and she just shrugged. "So," she continued, "what's your name?"

"Oh, I'm Anna," she said. "And this is my boyfriend, Kristoff."

The girl smiled at them. "I'm Julie. I'm the bride's sister," she said. "And these are my friends Mari and Olivia." The other exchanged smiles with Anna.

"Nice to meet you," Anna said. "So you're one of the princesses here?"

"Yeah," Julie said.

"So you're Prince Johan's sister?"

Julie looked at her curiously. "Yeah, why?"

"Oh, well he came to my kingdom with his father several years ago, and we talked a lot while he was there."

Julie, Olivia, and Mari walked with Anna and Kristoff toward the table that they had been sitting at. Julie remained silent for a moment, with a thoughtful expression on her face until she finally gasped in realization.

"Oh, you're the princess of Arendelle?" she said.

"Yeah," Anna said. "I guess I didn't mention that part, did I?"

Julie shook her head, laughing as they approached the table where Elsa sat.

"Anna?" Elsa said. "Who's this?"

"Oh, Elsa!" Anna exclaimed, having completely forgotten that her sister had been sitting there. "This is Princess Julie."

Julie smiled and gave a small bow to the queen.

"And, these are her friends, Mari and Olivia. Girls, this is my sister, Queen Elsa of Arendelle."

The other two girls stood frozen in place, staring at Elsa with their mouths agape until they finally got up the strength to say something.

"Uh... Hi," Mari said in shock.

"How you doing?" Olivia added.

All of them sat down at the table, and Elsa smiled awkwardly as Julie shot her friends a death glare.

"Elsa, are you sure you don't want any cake?" Anna said with her mouth full before swallowing. "It's not chocolate, but it's still pretty good."

Elsa shook her head. "No, I'm good, Anna," Elsa said, searching for a way to escape the awkward situation. "I think I'm going to take a walk."

Leaving her glass on the table, she stood and walked toward the coat room to get her cloak.

When she was gone, Julie slapped Olivia on the arm.

"Ow!"

"You guys are so rude!"

"We didn't mean to be!"

"Well you were!"

"Honestly, I'm just relieved she didn't freeze us to death," Mari said.

Julie reached past Olivia and slapped Mari on the arm.

"Ow!"

"Knock it off! Both of you!"

Anna chuckled as Olivia and Mari guiltily hung their heads low.

"I'm sorry about them," Julie said. "They didn't mean it."

"No, it's okay," Anna reassured her. "She knows not to take these things seriously. She'll get over it."

Julie smiled. Then they heard a young, male voice call to them.

"Julie, did you make a new friend _already?_" he teased.

Anna turned to see one of the groomsmen walking toward them. He had brown hair and brown eyes, and Anna immediately knew who he was.

"Just an old one of your's, Johan," Julie teased her brother.

Just then, Johan noticed who his sister was sitting with.

"Anna?"

"Hey, Johan!"

"Oh my goodness! It's so good to see you!" he said as she stood and hugged him.

"It's good to see you too!" she replied. "It's been so long! So much has happened!"

"Yeah, like these two blockheads scared her sister out!" Julie cut in, making Olivia and Mari cower under her glare.

This caught Johan's attention. "Elsa's here?"

"Yeah, she just went out to take a walk," Anna replied. Over her shoulder, Johan saw his sister smirk at him, and he shot her a look that said, 'Take a hike!'

"So, what do you mean those two 'scared her out'?" Johan asked.

"Well..." Anna began, "you obviously know about...?"

Johan caught on to what she was saying. "Yeah," he said simply.

"Well, these two clearly need to learn to not judge a book by its cover," Julie said, reprimanding her friends once again.

"We weren't trying to judge!" Olivia argued.

Johan cut in before Julie could terrorize them anymore. "Relax, Julie," he said before turning back to Anna. "I remember finding out about that. It all finally made sense to me."

"Yeah," Anna agreed. "But we've put it behind us. She is a lot more open with me now. Of course," she said, looking in the direction that Elsa had gone, "sometimes she still likes to be alone, but that's okay."

"Yeah," Johan said in agreement, his eyes fixed on the door that led outside. All of a sudden he made up his mind. "Excuse me, ladies," he said, walking in that direction.

Anna stared after him, puzzled. "What's with him?" she said. "Where is he off to?"

Julie chuckled and smirked at her. "Oh, I think I know where he's off to!"

.:.^*^.:.

Pulling the black hood of her cloak over her head, Elsa walked out the door to the gardens. It was mostly quiet out there, save for a young couple kissing behind a column and a little family with two young children playing tag.

Elsa walked on past them and stood at a spot under the overhang that overlooked the beach. She took in the scent of the salty water, and listened to the waves slap against the shore.

She knew she shouldn't let those girls get to her. They weren't the first ones to judge her before they knew her, and they wouldn't be the last. All that bothered her was the fear that he would see her like that. For all she knew, especially after the events of last summer, he could hate her by now...

Suddenly, she heard a voice in her head. It wasn't like she was imagining it. It was really there. All it said was her name, in a deep, hissing whisper.

_Elsa._

The queen looked around for someone nearby. Then, she spotted a hooded figure standing on the beach. He didn't move until he raised his hand, as if beckoning her to go over there.

_Come to me._

Elsa hesitated, glued to her spot on the walkway.

_Something important needs to be said._

Part of her told her not to go...

_Come to me._

... but her curiosity was getting the better of her.

Without thinking, Elsa began to walk forward...

Suddenly, she snapped back to her senses as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She gasped as she turned around to face whoever was behind her.

"Elsa?" he said.

She shouldn't have been surprised, but she found herself staring up at him, becoming lost in those familiar brown eyes.

"Johan."

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_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: Another day, another chapter! Read and review!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen. End of story.**

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Both Elsa and Johan stood frozen in their places for a few moments, still in shock of who was standing in front of them. Finally, Johan spoke up again.

"Oh my gosh. Elsa, I can't believe it's really you," he said.

Elsa opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out, so she just shrugged.

Johan noticed that she seemed uncomfortable. "Are you okay?" he said.

Elsa nodded. "Yeah," she said. "It's just- it's been so long. So much has changed."

"I know," Johan said. He took her hand in his and looked down at it for a moment.

Out of instinct, Elsa pulled her hand back. But she almost immediately regretted it.

Johan could tell what was going through her head. He saw the fearful look in her eyes.

"It's okay," he said. "You don't need to be afraid. I know about your powers, but they don't change the way I see you as a person."

Relieved, Elsa finally began to relax. She even gave him half a smile.

"Johan, it's so good to see you," she said.

"It's good to see you, too," he replied.

All of a sudden, Elsa remembered what she had been doing. Cautiously, she looked over her shoulder at the beach. But the man who had spoken to her was gone. It was like he disappeared.

"What are you looking at?" Johan asked, following her gaze.

Elsa hesitated. "Nothing," she replied. "It's just my imagination."

Johan shrugged and looked her in the eye. "C'mon," he said, "let's go back inside. Anna and Julie are probably wondering where we are."

He held out his hand for her, and again, Elsa hesitated. But after a short moment, she placed her hand in his and he led her back to the door. She took one last look at the beach, but there was no sign of the mysterious man.

_I'm going crazy,_ she thought to herself. _That's what it is. I'm seeing things. I need to get a grip on myself!_

Putting the thought behind her, she focused on what was happening now. In the coat room, Johan removed her cloak and hung it up for her. They walked back out to the Great Hall, to the table where the others sat chatting and laughing.

"Oh, there you are Elsa!" Anna said, noticing them walking up. "Are you okay?"

Elsa nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay."

"That's good," Julie said, before turning to Olivia and Mari. "Girls, do you have something you want to say?"

The two girls looked up at Elsa. "We're sorry for acting rude, Your Majesty," Mari said. Behind her, Olivia nodded in agreement.

Elsa held in a chuckle to how well Julie had beaten them into submission. "It's okay," the queen replied. "I know you didn't mean it."

"Thanks," Olivia said gratefully. She turned to Julie. "Well Julie, it's getting late. Mari and I better head home, or our parents will start to worry."

"Yeah, especially her parents," Mari teased. Olivia rolled her eyes.

"Alright then," Julie said. "I'll see you soon."

With that, the two girls stood and bade farewell to the others before heading off.

After an unbearable period of awkward silence fell over them, the band began to play a waltz, and Anna looked over at Kristoff.

"Shall we dance?" she said.

"Sure," he replied, taking her hand and leading her to the dance floor.

Johan stared at Elsa across the table. Julie nudged him and nodded for him to do something.

Using all the courage he could muster, he stood up and walked around the table to where she sat. She looked up at him, and waited for him to say something until he held out his hand for her.

"May I have the pleasure, Your Majesty?" he said.

"I'm not much of a dancer."

He smiled tenderly at her. "Just follow my lead. If I can do it, you can do it."

Elsa smiled at him as she took his hand, and he led her to the dance floor. He positioned her left hand on his shoulder and placed his right hand on her waist. He led her briskly through the movements, and Elsa was intrigued to discover how easy it was.

Meanwhile, Anna and Kristoff had left the floor, and Anna went back to the table with Julie while Kristoff got a glass of water.

"Where are Elsa and Johan?" Anna asked Julie upon seeing her alone.

Julie nodded to the dance floor, and Anna turned to see the two dancing gracefully.

"I never knew she had it in her," Anna commented as she sat down.

"I had a feeling that their relationship would quickly grow once she got here," Julie said.

Anna looked at her skeptically. "Wait, what? What are you talking about?"

Julie's eyes widened at this. "Elsa never told you?"

"Told me what?"

"Well if Elsa never said anything, I'm certainly not going to say anything! My lips are sealed as tight as a drum! You aren't getting anything out of me!"

Anna smirked at how defensive Julie had suddenly become. "C'mon, Julie. What are you hiding?"

"Nothing!"

"Tell me!"

"No!"

"Come on!" Anna begged. "I won't tell anyone about it, or that I heard it from you."

Julie hesitated. "Well..."

"I'm not gonna stop bugging you until you tell me." Anna said.

Julie sighed. "Alright. Come over here."

Anna moved next to Julie so she could whisper to her.

"When Johan visited Arendelle," she began, "he and Elsa once ran into each other in the middle of the night, and after that he would go to her door to talk to her every night. They ended up kind of liking each other, and on the last night-" She looked around to make sure no one was listening. "-on the last night she even came out and kissed him!"

Anna stared at her agape. "Are you sure we're talking about _my_ sister here?"

"Absolutely positive."

"Wow." Anna looked back at Elsa and Johan dancing, losing themselves in each other's eyes.

"You can't tell anyone I told you that!" Julie instructed.

"I won't," Anna reassured her. "I just wonder why she never told me."

"It probably never crossed her mind," Julie guessed. "And even when it did, she probably thought there was no reason to."

Anna shrugged, when she noticed a tall, handsome boy in a guard uniform walking over to them. He had a long jagged scar down the left side of his face, and he smiled at them as he approached.

"Julie, are you bothering people?" he teased.

"Shut up, Noah," Julie replied, blushing. "It's bad enough to have Johan on my tail all the time."

Noah chuckled and looked at Anna as he held out his hand. "Hi," he said. "Noah Jacobsen. I'm a good friend of the royal family."

Anna smiled as she took his outstretched hand. "Princess Anna of Arendelle."

Noah's eyes widened at this. "Oh, well how do you do, Your Highness?" he corrected himself, realizing who she was. "Johan has said many good things about you."

"Aww, thank you!" the princess replied.

"Speaking of Johan," Noah continued, turning to Julie, "where has he gotten himself off to this time?"

Julie nodded to the dance floor, and Noah looked for a moment before finally spotting him and Elsa. He turned back to them with wide eyes, and he brought his voice down to a whisper.

"Is that-?"

"Mm-hmm," Julie replied with a smirk on her face.

Noah stared at his friend, agape. He started to say something else but was interrupted when Kristoff came back, a glass of water in his hand.

"Hi," Kristoff said, a little lost as to why there was yet another new person standing at their table.

Julie was quick to settle the awkward moment. "Oh, Kristoff, this is my friend, Noah. Noah, this is Anna's boyfriend, Kristoff."

Noah grinned and shook hands with the mountain man. "Pleasure to meet you, sir."

"You as well," Kristoff replied.

"So anyway," Julie continued, "Noah, I'm not kicking you out or anything, but was there something specific you wanted when you came over here?"

"Oh! No, not really," he replied. "I just saw you over here and thought I'd say hi."

Julie blushed at this comment. Anna noticed and nudged her when Noah wasn't looking.

All of a sudden, another young guard, younger than Noah, came running to them when he saw him.

"Noah," he said, "do you know where Captain Gunnarson is?"

"No," Noah replied. "Why do you need to find him? I thought you were at the weather tower."

"I was," the young guard said. "That's why I need to find him."

Noah's eyes widened in annoyance. "Oh my gosh. We have all these ships in the harbor from other kingdoms that are supposed to leave either tonight or tomorrow! _Please_ don't tell me there's a storm coming in!"

* * *

_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: Well, hello! I'm so glad you stopped by! Welcome to the next chapter! And you know, since as we all know a major topic in this chapter is going to be the storm that was mentioned, I'd ****just like to say, while we're on the topic, if you're going to the shore on the east coast, make sure you're careful****, because there's a hurricane headed our way! That's all! Enjoy the chapter! :-)**

**Disclaimer: I "dis-claim" Frozen, meaning I don't own it.**

* * *

"I must say, you're quite the dancer," Elsa said as she and Johan glided across the floor.

Johan chuckled. "I'm not bad," he said. "But only when I have a good partner to dance with."

Elsa smiled as she tried to hide the blush that appeared on her face. It wasn't working, though.

"Elsa!"

The queen turned to see Anna calling her, beckoning them to come over to the table. After exchanging glances with Johan, they walked over to where Anna, Julie, Kristoff, and a young guard with a scar sat with somewhat worried looks on their faces.

"What is it?" Elsa asked.

Anna took a deep breath. "Well," she began, "we have a little bit of a... slight... I don't want to say 'problem'; it's really more of a... um... a 'hindrance', shall we say-"

"Skip to the point!" Elsa said impatiently.

"There's a snowstorm coming in from the northeast," Anna said.

Elsa looked at her sister, confused. "Okay..." she said. "Well... it's not me, if that's what you're wondering-"

"No! No!" Anna interrupted. "I know it's not you."

"The problem is that the weather will cut into your plans to leave tomorrow morning, along with everyone else's," the guard spoke up.

"Well, Noah, how bad is it?" Johan said.

Elsa recognized that name. She remembered the story that Johan had told her one night all those years ago, the story of how he and Julie had saved this boy from freezing to death after he had run away from his abusive father.

"It's pretty bad," Noah replied. "All these people could get stuck here a while. However, if they were to leave now, they might be able to beat the storm, but-"

Johan felt saddened at the prospect of his time with Elsa being cut short, after finally seeing her again for the first time in so many years. But he didn't have to worry long, as Anna cut Noah off mid-sentence.

"If there's a storm coming, I'm not going anywhere _near_ that ship!" the princess concluded.

Elsa nodded her head in agreement, and Johan felt a surge of relief.

"Well, I guess we can arrange for you guys to stay here for a while," Julie said.

"It looks more like you're going to have to arrange for _everyone_ to stay here for a while," Elsa joked.

"Yeah, but we'll make sure you guys have the best rooms," Johan said, smiling.

Elsa smirked at him. "I highly doubt that any of the rooms are _bad_."

"Well, no," he agreed, "but you guys can have the perk of being near us. How do you like that?"

Elsa smiled. "I'd like that."

"Sounds great!" Anna agreed. "Maybe we should get on that now before it gets too late."

Elsa nodded. "Alright then."

.:.^*^.:.

Elsa sat on the bed in her guest room as she unpacked. Johan had been right about one thing: these were the best rooms as far as location.

A knock sounded at the door. It was a familiar knock. One that she knew, but hadn't heard in a long, long time.

"Come in."

Johan opened the door and walked in. "Hey," he said. "Just came to make sure you're settling in okay."

"I'm fine, thanks," Elsa replied, blushing.

Johan nodded, but at a loss of words, he turned to walk out.

"Well, don't leave," Elsa said. She sat on the bed and motioned for him to sit next to her. "Come and talk to me for a while."

Johan did as she said and sat down next to her. A moment of awkward silence passed between them before Johan finally spoke up.

"You know, part of me didn't expect to hear you say 'come in' when I knocked," he said. "I'm so used to knocking on your door and getting no response."

Elsa chuckled at this. "Yeah," she said. "So much has changed."

"I know," he replied. "It's kind of funny to think that you're a queen now. It makes it feel like it's been even longer."

"Well, that's just it, though," Elsa said. "Once my parents died, everything just changed so quickly."

Johan recalled when he heard about the death of the King and Queen of Arendelle. He had heard about the tragic shipwreck from his father.

"I guess that's why you and Anna were so adamant that you weren't going on that ship," he said.

Elsa nodded sadly. "Yeah."

Johan gently took her hand to comfort her. She felt a jolt go up her spine at his familiar touch.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Thanks," she replied with a small smile. "Anyway, on the day of my coronation, it all just kind of spilled out. I couldn't hold it in any more. I got in an argument with Anna, she pulled off my glove, and... well I guess you know what happened next."

Johan squeezed her hand comfortingly. "Hey, all's well that ends well, right?"

"Yeah," she replied.

The prince sighed. There were so many things he wanted to ask her. He bit his tongue, figuring that now was not the best time. But there was one thing he was desperately curious about. He stared at her cold hand that held on to his, but he quickly looked away when she noticed.

"If you want to ask, you can," she said. "I don't mind."

He shrugged. "I- uh- I just wanted to know if- uh- maybe I could- uh-"

"You want to see?" she finished for him, knowing he'd never get the sentence out.

Johan sighed. "Only if you don't mind," he said.

Elsa smiled. She held her hands close together and formed a circling ball of snowflakes between them.

"Ready?" she said.

He nodded, and she shot the magic up toward the ceiling, where it burst into flurries of snow that fell throughout the room. Johan looked around in amazement, and then he gazed at her in delight.

"Wow," he said. "I guess you really meant it."

Elsa looked at him, confused. "Meant what?"

He smiled tenderly at her. "When you said that I'd find you where the snowflakes fall."

Elsa blushed. "Well," she said, "I never really intended for you to find out the way you did."

"It's okay," he said. "I understand why you didn't tell me."

She looked up at him. "You do?"

"Mm-hmm," he replied. "Because you didn't know whether or not you could trust me."

Elsa hesitated to say something else. "Well," she continued, "that was part of it. But the main reason was that I didn't trust myself."

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't want to hurt anyone," she said. "Like I hurt Anna when we were little."

Johan stared at her with sympathy as it all started making sense to him. As the snow started to freeze into ice on the floor, Elsa took a deep breath to calm herself down, and everything melted.

"Elsa," Johan said, taking her hand in both of his, "please don't be afraid of yourself. I trust you, and I just hope you can trust me."

Elsa blinked back a tear starting to form in her eye. "I do," she said.

He smiled at her. "Good," he said as he began to stand. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight," she replied as he exited the room.

Elsa sat by herself for merely a minute before another familiar knock sounded at the door.

"Come in, Anna."

Anna stepped into the room and shut the door behind her. She smirked at her sister.

"I saw that."

Elsa stared at her, confused. "What?"

"You like him! Don't you?" Anna cried.

"What? No!" Elsa said defensively. "We're just friends! I just met him!"

"Oh, sure. You _just_ met him?"

"Yeah," the queen said hesitantly, wondering how much Anna heard.

"Mm-hmm. Liar," Anna said.

"What?" Elsa said, refusing to let her guard down. "I don't know what to tell you!"

"You don't have to. I know everything," Anna replied.

"What? What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean! I'm talking about everything that happened seven-and-a-half years ago! And yes, that includes the kiss!"

"How did you find out?"

"That's for me to know," the princess replied stubbornly. "But if it makes you feel any better, I didn't find out from him."

Elsa sighed and fell back on the bed. "Okay, fine. You got me," she said. "But that was almost eight years ago. As of right now, we are just friends."

Anna smirked at her as she began to walk out the door. "We'll see."

* * *

_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: Well, I might have broken my own personal record here for longest chapter I've ever written, but personally, I think this one's kinda boring... but hey, maybe you might enjoy it, so I'd just read it anyway! :-]**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen (or any other movie, for that matter).**

* * *

Elsa awoke the next morning to the sound of the howling wind against her window. Rubbing her sleep laden eyes, it took a moment for her to remember where she was. As yesterday's events came flowing back to her, she dragged herself out of bed to look out the window.

Outside, the snow violently swirled around in the wind, and it was too white for Elsa to see anything else. She couldn't even tell if the sun was up. But a quick look at the clock confirmed that she was up no earlier than usual.

Yawning, Elsa made her way to the closet to start preparing herself for the day, although she had no idea what she was going to do being snowed in. She slipped into a simple, long-sleeved purple dress and began to brush her hair in front of the mirror.

A few minutes later, to her surprise, she heard her sister knock on her door.

"Come in."

Anna opened the door and pranced into the room. She still had her nightgown on, and her hair had barely been brushed.

"Hey," she said as she sat on the edge of the bed.

"You're up early," the queen commented.

"Well, the wind started crashing ice into the window, and that woke me up," Anna explained. "So I figured I'd come and see what you were up to, since I knew you would be awake."

Elsa shot her a smirk as she continued to straighten her bed-head.

"Besides," Anna continued, "Kristoff snores and-" The princesses eyes widened as she realized who she had just said that to. She looked at her sister to see her with a look on her face that showed a mix of shock, amusement, and disgust all in one.

"Uh, well- we... we were just-"

"No, Anna, I really don't want to know."

Anna sighed in relief at not having to explain any further. "Anyway..." She continued, hastily changing the topic. "That's a cute dress! Is it new?"

"No," Elsa replied. "I just haven't worn it in a while."

"It looks good on you," Anna said. "It's simple but elegant."

"Thanks." Elsa looked at herself in the mirror, having finished taming her hair. "What do you think I should do with my hair? A bun or a braid?"

"Hmmm..." Anna thought for a moment as she studied Elsa's appearance. "Honestly, I think you should just leave it down. It looks good like that."

"You think so?" Elsa replied, looking at herself in the mirror. Her wavy blonde hair hung behind her to about her waist, and it seemed to add to the simple-but-elegant look that her dress already had. "Alright," she agreed. "Now go get dressed. We have a lot to do today."

"Like what?" Anna asked as she made her way to the door.

Elsa paused as she pulled out her makeup supplies. "Figure out what we have to do today."

Anna laughed as she exited her sister's room.

Not even five minutes later, Anna came back, wearing a long-sleeved dress with a few different shades of blue in it. Her hair was mostly straightened out, save for one small braid hanging to the right side of her face.

"I just saw Johan. He said there is breakfast in the Great Hall for everyone," she said.

"Okay," Elsa said. "Did you wake Kristoff?"

"Yeah. He just threw on the first pair of pants and shirt he could find and went down there."

Elsa chuckled. "Typical Kristoff."

"Yeah," Anna agreed. "Can I use some of your makeup?"

"Why? What's wrong with yours?"

"Nothing, it's just buried somewhere in my bag and I don't feel like searching for it right now."

Elsa laughed and shook her head at her sister's antics. "Alright, fine."

The girls finished primping themselves and walked together to the Great Hall, where they found Kristoff and Johan sitting at the table they had been at the night before.

"Morning, gentlemen," Elsa greeted them, taking the empty seat next to Johan. Anna meanwhile sat on the other side of Kristoff.

"Good morning," Johan replied. "Did you sleep well?"

"I did, thank you," the queen replied. An awkward silence fell over them, until the waiter came around to take their orders.

Johan was just about to try to make conversation when he saw Julie walk into the Hall. She still wore her nightgown and a robe and slippers, and her hair stuck up in all directions.

"Morning," she said with a yawn, sitting in the empty seat next to Anna.

Johan scoffed at her. "I have never met anyone who can sleep as long as you," he said.

"Sure you have," Anna cut in. "I'm usually a pretty late sleeper, but the wind outside woke me up."

"Well that still makes you better than me," Julie said, laying her head down on the table. "I could probably sleep through an earthquake."

Anna laughed, and even Johan chuckled as he scolded his sister.

"Well, you know, Julie," he continued, "at least Anna and her sister her took the time this morning to make themselves look _presentable_, while you're coming down here in a robe and slippers."

Julie lifted her head and gave him a cold stare. "I live here. I don't really care!"

They all chuckled, and Elsa thought of how similar Julie was to Anna. Looking around as they dropped the subject, she saw that the Great Hall had begun to fill up with the people who had chosen to stay rather than try to beat the storm. But despite the loud volume, mostly provided by young children, it was not nearly as full as the night before.

"Not as many people stayed as I thought would. I'm surprised," she commented.

"Yeah, I was surprised too," Johan agreed. "It's mostly people who live too far or just thought it was too risky. But we haven't gotten word of any ships going down, so as far as we know, all of the people who left are safe."

"Well that's good," Elsa said.

"So do you guys have any plans for today?" Johan asked.

"(Well)," Julie began jokingly, "I'm planning to-"

"Not you!" Johan yelled at her.

Elsa chuckled at the two siblings before clearing her throat. "Well," she said, "since our original plans for the day have been ruined by this weather, I actually have no idea what we are going to do today."

"I think we should just relax!" Anna said, leaning back in her chair with her hands behind her head. "We get an extra-long vacation!"

"That sound great, but we have to find _something_ to occupy our time for the next few days, or we're all going to get _cabin fever_ from being stuck inside!" Kristoff said. Anna laughed, and he chuckled along before saying, "Yeah, you think I'm joking?"

"Well I might just get a book to read and curl up under my covers all day, because it is _freezing_!" Julie said.

"The staff is working overtime to try to keep all the fires going," Johan said, "but there's only so much they can do."

"Well you know," Kristoff said, "if they need help, I know how to make the crème de la crème of fires that can keep a pretty big place warm and keep going for a while."

"Really?" Johan said.

"I'm a mountain man. I know how to survive these sorts of conditions."

"Well, if you don't mind, I'm sure they'd love the help."

"I would be more than happy," Kristoff said, before turning to Anna. "Unless, of course, you wanted to do something."

"No, go ahead," Anna replied. "I'll find something to do. Ooo! Elsa, can we build a snowman?"

"Anna, I'd say yes, bit covering our own ballroom in snow is one thing. It would be awfully rude to mess up someone else's ballroom," the queen replied.

"Oh," Anna said, slouching down in her chair. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"You guys make snowmen in your ballroom?" Julie said. "That sounds like so much fun!"

"Yeah, we do it once in a while when I have a day off," Elsa said. "When we were real little, that one over there would wake me up in the middle of the night and we would play in the snow until our parents would come in and see the mess."

"Yeah," Anna agreed. "Those were the good days, weren't they Elsa?"

"Yeah," Elsa said, looking down at her fingers as she tapped them on the table. Her smile slowly disappeared as she remembered the night when that all ended.

Anna noticed her sister's smile falter. "Oh, Elsa, would you stop thinking about it?"

"I can't help it."

"Well look at it this way: what happened that night happened. But you can't keep thinking about how thing could have turned out differently. The fact is I'm here now and still in one piece!"

Elsa chuckled. "Yeah, I know."

Julie leaned closer to Anna. "Why? What happened?" she whispered.

Anna shook her head. "I'll tell you later," she whispered back before hastily changing the topic. "Anyway, speaking of snowmen, Olaf is probably gonna miss us while we're gone."

"Yeah," Elsa agreed, "but I'm sure he'll find something to do."

"At least he still has Sven!" Kristoff said. The sisters chuckled, while a waiter came around with their food.

Johan gave them a confused grin. "I'm kinda out of the loop here. Who are Olaf and Sven?"

"Sven is Kristoff's reindeer, and Olaf is a living snowman I built," Elsa replied. When Johan raised an eyebrow at her, she simply shook her head. "Don't ask."

The whole table laughed as they began to eat. As soon as he was done, Kristoff got up to get to work. Not long after, Julie took Anna to see what dresses she could borrow when she ran out, since she only packed a few.

Now left alone, Elsa and Johan sat in silence, each yearning for the other to say something. Johan didn't want to take his eyes off the beautiful woman in front of him. There were so many things he wanted to say, but he didn't know how to say them.

Elsa felt herself turn red under his gaze, and her mouth broke into a wide grin as she let out the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.

"What?" he said with a grin.

She turned her head toward him. "You're staring at me."

"Oh!" he said, sounding as if he had snapped back to his senses. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to-"

"No! It's okay," she assured him. She took in a deep breath as she continued. "You wouldn't be the first."

Johan's mood suddenly turned somber. "What do you mean?"

Elsa stared into his eyes. "People take one look at me and they know exactly who I am. I'm the magical queen of Arendelle who froze the entire land in the middle of summer. The one who tried to run away from her problems rather than face them." She shook her head to herself as she looked away from him. "I'd stare too."

Johan looked at her with sympathy, as he realized how much people must judge her. Leaning forward, he placed his hand on top of the one she had rested on the table. She jumped, not expecting him to do that but she didn't pull back as she looked him in the eye.

"Elsa," he said, "you can't let that get to you. People are afraid of what they can't understand. And it's nothing you did on purpose. And if you made some mistakes along the way, well, guess what, mistakes are part of being human. None of what happened last summer defines who you are. So you can't let it define who you are. Okay?"

Elsa smiled at him. "Thanks, Johan."

"You don't need to thank me for anything," he replied. "Just know that when I stare at you, I don't see the queen that froze the entire land. I see a beautiful young woman with plenary to offer."

Elsa felt a blush creep onto her face, and she prayed that he wouldn't notice. Taking a deep breath, she pushed on to change the topic.

"So," she said, "what have you been up to all this time?"

Johan shrugged. "Ah, well, nothing interesting. I've been practicing my flute, like, four hours a day-"

"You play the flute?" Elsa cut in.

"Yeah," Johan said. "And I'm pretty good at it, if I do say so myself!"

Elsa laughed. "How many years have you been playing?"

"I've been playing for..." He tried to count off the years on his fingers. "... a long time!" As she laughed again, an idea hit him. "Do you want me to play for you?"

"Right now?"

"Yeah, why not? It's not like we can do much else with this weather."

She smiled as he stood and held out his hand for her. "Alright," she said, taking his hand.

"C'mon, I'll take you to the music room," he said, leading her out of the Great Hall.

.:.^*^.:.

"Thanks again for letting me borrow some of your dresses," Anna said, as Julie led her to her room.

"No problem," Julie replied. "So long as they fit you."

"Yeah, I think they should," Anna said. "We're about the same size."

"Yeah," Julie agreed. "And, you know, we may be small, but we're not as delicate as we look!"

The princesses laughed as they turned the corner, until Julie ran into something and fell on the floor.

"Ow!"

"Oh my goodness! Your Highness, I'm so sorry!"

Julie knew that voice. She looked up to see Noah grabbing her hands and helping her to her feet.

"Why so formal?" she said as she stood.

"Well, I just-" he stuttered as he cast a glance at Anna, "I figured since we have guests, uh-"

Julie simply shook her head at him. "Noah, you're fine. You don't need to be all formal."

"Oh," he said. "Sorry."

She chuckled as he gazed at her. Looking up at the handsome guard, she lost herself in his beautiful, hazel eyes.

"Ahem!"

A small cough from Anna brought them back to their surroundings. They stepped back as they realized how close to each other they had been standing.

"Well," Noah said with a nervous laugh, "I'd better get to my post."

"Okay," Julie replied. "See you later, then."

As he rushed down the hallway, Anna looked at Julie with a skeptical look on her face.

"Is he, like, your boyfriend?" she asked.

Julie's breath caught in her throat for a moment, and her face turned scarlet red. "What? No!" she said, as she began speed-walking toward her room. "We're just friends!"

Anna smirked at her as they walked into Julie's large bedroom. "But do you wish you were more than just friends?"

Julie stopped in her tracks for a moment, trying to think of how to answer that. "Look, does it really matter that much?"

"Come _on!_" Anna begged.

"Well, I don't know what you want me to tell you!"

"Well, let's start with this," Anna said, sitting on Julie's bed. "How did you guys meet?"

Julie sighed as she sat down next to her. "Well," she began, "it's kind of a long story. One day, when I was about four, Johan and I were walking home because we knew there was a storm coming when we found him hiding in an alley. It was obvious that he was hungry, cold, and all alone, so we brought him back here. He was really nervous around us at first, but once we got him to trust us, we learned that his father had beaten him and he ran away."

"That's horrible," Anna said. "Is that how he got that scar on his face?"

"Yeah," Julie replied. "Anyway, the guards went to go look for his father to arrest him for child abuse, but when they got to his house, his father and the rest of his family were gone. They had fled the kingdom. So, we put that behind us and took him in here as a servant, and when he was old enough he became a guard. But he's always been a really close friend to Johan. And to me."

After a moment of silence, Anna found her voice again. "Wow," she said. "You guys pretty much saved his life that day."

"Yeah," Julie said. "We don't talk about it much, though. It reminds him too much of his father."

Anna smirked at her. "So you _really_ don't have any feelings for him at all?"

Julie looked down at her hands resting in her lap to try to hide the blush on her face. She shrugged. "I guess maybe I do," she said, before hastily changing the topic. "But it doesn't matter now. Come on; let's see what dresses I have for you to borrow."

As Anna followed her to the closet, she couldn't help but think about how perfect Julie and Noah seemed together. She desperately longed to see them get together, almost as much as she longed to see Elsa get involved with Johan.

That gave her an idea.

* * *

_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N: This is a chapter that we can laugh about, because it will reveal Anna's devious (and surprisingly well-thought-out) plan. And just for the record, if it doesn't make sense at first, I promise it should make sense by the end of the chapter! :-)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen. Let's leave that with the professionals!**

* * *

The next morning at breakfast, Anna pitched her idea to Elsa, Johan, and Kristoff.

"So, you want us to help you play matchmaker on Julie and Noah?" Elsa said.

"I'm in," Johan said without hesitation. "I've been watching the way they look at each other for years!"

"And Julie even admitted to me yesterday that she has some feelings for him," Anna said.

"But how do we know that he has feelings for her?" Kristoff asked.

"Well, I could pretty much tell just from the way he looks at her, but just to be sure, I'm gonna leave it up to _him_," she said, pointing at Johan, "to find out."

"Why me?" Johan said.

"Because Noah doesn't know the three of us that well, and if one of us asked him, he'd know something's up," Anna replied. "Also, I don't think he would trust any of us enough to tell us anything, wouldn't you agree?"

"_I_ wouldn't trust us to keep a secret," Elsa agreed.

"Alright, fine, I'll do it," Johan said.

"So I guess that's our first step," Anna concluded. "We should split up and meet somewhere later."

"Alright," Elsa said. "So, where are we gonna meet?"

"Uhh..." Anna glanced at Johan for an answer, not knowing her way around the castle very well.

"How about the music room on the second floor?" he said. "No one else ever goes in there."

"Sounds great!" Anna said. "So we'll all meet there at..." She looks at the clock. "Noon!"

.:.^*^.:.

Noon didn't seem to come fast enough for Elsa. She wasn't sure why she was so excited about this. It was just something to do while she was here and couldn't go outside. But something told her that she was excited simply because she'd get to spend time with Johan...

_What?_ she thought to herself. _No, I hardly know him. I need to calm down._

At about fifteen minutes before noon, she decided she couldn't wait any longer and started making her way to the music room. When she reached the door about five minutes later, she could hear the sweet sound of a flute from the other side. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and walked in.

Johan looked up from his music. "Hey," he said. "You're here early."

Elsa shrugged. "Didn't really have much else to do," she said. "So what did Noah say? Does he like Julie?"

"Of course," Johan said. "I really probably could have told you that in the first place."

Elsa smiled as she pulled up a chair next to him and he kept playing. She stared at him as he finished the song and smiled back at her.

"You play really well," Elsa said.

"Thanks."

"I wanted to play an instrument when I was really little, but my parents said no because they didn't want to hire anyone to teach me."

Johan chuckled. "Well, hey, you still could! You want to try?" he offered, holding out his flute to her.

"What? No, I can't!"

"Sure you can. Here." He placed the flute in her hands and stood behind her. He held her hands as he positioned them on the right parts of the instrument and showed her where to place her fingers. He showed her how to blow into the mouthpiece, and she tried to mimic his technique. On her first few attempts, nothing came out of the instrument but air, but she kept trying and then finally made a sound that sounded like music.

"Hey, I did it!" she exclaimed.

"That was good!" Johan said as she tried to do it again, but she couldn't seem to do it a second time.

Finally she gave up, chuckling as she shook her head.

"That's harder than it looks!"

"Oh, that's nothing," Johan said. "Julie plays the French horn. That's even harder to play well."

"French horn?"

"Yeah, that's..." He walked to the other side of the room and picked up a somewhat large brass instrument off of its stand. "...this."

Elsa examined the instrument for a moment. It's twisted up tubing and large bell sure made it look heavier than a flute, but it didn't look as complicated to work.

"How is that harder?" she asked. "It's only got three buttons."

"That's exactly what _makes_ it harder," he replied. "Just think: if you have only three valves, and only about six or seven combinations of them, you could push down one valve on this and be able to get like six different notes. So there's a lot more to playing this than pushing down buttons."

Elsa tried to ponder this for a moment. "Okay..." she said, nodding her head slowly. "Most of that went over my head, but I think I know what you mean."

Johan chuckled as he shifted the horn in his hands.

"Can you play it?" Elsa asked.

Johan shrugged. "Eh," he said. "A _little_ bit. I mean, I know maybe a scale or two."

He blew into the mouthpiece and tried to struggle his way through a scale. He made a mock-thoughtful expression on his face as he tried to rack his brain to remember what to do. When he finally reached the top note, he smiled and shook his head as he put the horn back on its stand.

"Julie's way better at it than I am," he said as he sat back down next to Elsa, who giggled as he criticized himself.

The next few minutes were filled with the sounds of talking and laughing until Anna and Kristoff showed up a few minutes after noon. Anna always did have a tendency to arrive for things fashionably late.

"Okay," Anna said. "So our next step is to figure out how to get them together in a... somewhat romantic situation."

Kristoff chuckled. "A dimly lit bedroom?"

"Not _that_ romantic!" Johan yelled with a look of panic on his face that made the others burst into fits of laughter.

"Relax! I'm kidding!" Kristoff said, raising his hands in surrender.

"_Anyway,_" Elsa said, trying to get them back on topic, "what exactly did you have in mind, Anna?"

"Well, what kinds of things do they both enjoy? What do they have in common?" Anna said, looking at Johan.

"If there's one thing they both _love_ it's going out into town," the prince replied. "Julie's a people-person, and so is Noah, to an extent."

"But we can't get out of the castle right now because of this storm," Elsa pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's starting to slow down. It'll be past us by tomorrow, and it'll only take another day or two for the streets to be clear enough to walk around."

"So we'll be able to get out and do this another couple of days or so?" Anna asked.

"Yeah, we should be," Johan replied.

"Alright, that sounds like a good plan," Anna said. "Now, ultimately our goal is just to get them alone together, but I think we should figure out a place to leave them alone where they'll really bond."

"And once we do split up, we should try to stay together in pairs, so that way we aren't all in one group, but none of us will get completely lost," Kristoff added.

"That's a good idea," Elsa agreed.

"Anna, do you wanna go with your sister?" Kristoff asked.

Anna stared at him with disappointment in her eyes. "Actually, I was hoping to spend the day with you," she replied.

"Oh," Kristoff said, surprised. "Alright then, that sounds great!"

"As long as it's okay with you, Elsa," Anna said, looking at her sister.

"Yeah, it's fine," Elsa said. "I'll stay with Johan." She smiled at the prince, and he smiled back. The gazed into each other's eyes for a moment until Anna spoke again.

"Alright then," she said. "So let's do this: you two-" She pointed at Elsa and Johan. "-figure out where and how we're gonna do this, and Kristoff and I will try to come up with things we could do in the meantime."

"Sounds great!" Elsa said.

"I've actually got a few ideas already," Johan said excitedly. "Come on. There are some drawings of some good places in some books in the library."

He took the queen's hand and pulled her out of the room. She giggled as he dragged her toward the library.

When they were gone, Anna's face broke into a wide, satisfactory grin. Noticing the spark of mischief in her eyes, Kristoff eyed her suspiciously.

"What are you doing?" he said.

Anna looked at him with a mischievous smirk on her face.

"Playing matchmaker," she replied. "What's it look like I'm doing?"

* * *

**Can I just mention that that last line there is my favorite line in the whole story? :-D**

_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: *yawn!* Morning... *gasp!* It's morning everyone! And it's Tuesday! And that means it's time for, what?... Yeeeesss, the next chapter! :-D And a lot happens in this chapter, so pay attention!**

**Disclaimer: I may be a spoiled only child, but I'm not spoiled enough that I can say I own the rights to Frozen.**

* * *

Two days later, the snow had been cleared enough that the royals could go into town and put Anna's plan into action. It didn't take much to convince Julie to come with them. Noah made it a little harder, but once Johan bribed another guard to take his shift, he reluctantly agreed.

The plan was to leave Noah and Julie alone in the town square, where there were always musicians playing and people dancing. Johan had figured that this would be the perfect way to get them to bond. As for how the rest of them were going to get away, well, they decided to play that by ear.

As the six of them walked through town, Johan and Julie received numerous bows and greetings. Julie loved the attention, and she would respond by showing her love for all of them, and she even would bend down to hug a few children. This would noticeably bring a smile to Noah's face.

"It's nice to be able to get out of the castle," Julie said at one point.

"I agree," Anna said. "Especially when you get to spend time with the people you care about."

As Anna leaned her head on Kristoff, Julie glanced around at the others in the group, for a moment locking her eyes on Noah. Anna had talked to her a lot in the last few days, trying to get her to show him how she felt. What Julie didn't know was that Kristoff, who had quickly been able to relate to Noah, had been talking to him, too.

"You know, Anna," Kristoff said, "I know this is probably a bad time to ask, but I've really wanted to spend some time alone with you."

Anna smiled at him, recognizing his attempt to get them away.

"What did you have in mind?" she asked.

"Well," he said, "to start, I've heard there's a really good chocolate shop around here."

"Really?" Anna said, her face lighting up with excitement. "That sounds great!" She glanced at the rest of the group, pretending to be unsure. "Do you guys mind if we go off on our own?"

The other four shook their heads. Elsa and Johan exchanged a knowing glance.

"Do you know how to get there from here?" Johan asked. Kristoff shook his head. "Turn down this street and go two blocks down. You can't miss it."

"Thanks," Kristoff replied.

"We'll catch up with you guys later," Anna said before they turned the corner and disappeared down the street.

Elsa and Johan kept conversation going for the next few minutes. As they approached the square, Johan looked around and sighed.

"Winter is so beautiful," he said, gazing at the snow that covered the buildings.

"Yeah," Elsa agreed. "Especially this place. The snow really does make the village look quite charming."

"Well, you know," he said, "the most beautiful place around here after it snows is the park."

"Really?"

"Yeah. The snow covered pine trees; the frozen lake; it really is a sight to see."

"Could it be a sight I could see?"

"Sure. Come on; I'll show you," Johan said, taking her hand and starting to lead her in the direction of the park.

"Wait!" Julie called after them. "I thought we were going to the square."

Johan could tell by the look on her face that she was disappointed at the thought of not going to the square. Noah's identical expression showed that he felt the same way. _Perfect._

"You guys can go," Johan replied. "Go have fun. We'll catch up with you guys later."

Before Julie could protest any more, Johan and Elsa had made their way through the crowded street, leaving the princess and the guard to glance at each other, confused.

Walking forward, they heard music ringing through the air. As they entered the town square, they saw people clapping and dancing to the festive music coming from the band in the gazebo. This made both of them smile.

After a moment's hesitation, Noah held out his hand to the princess. "Shall we dance?"

Julie beamed at him as she placed her hand in his. "We shall."

.:.^*^.:.

"So do you think we should check on our two pairs of lovebirds?" Anna said as they exited the chocolate shop.

"Why don't we just leave them alone?" Kristoff said. "If you want them in romantic situations, you could give them some privacy."

"But I want to make sure this is working!"

"You'll find out when we get back to the castle tonight."

"But-"

"Anna!" Kristoff cut her off. He brushed a stray piece of hair off her face as he stared into her big, blue eyes. "You know I really meant it when I said I wanted to spend some time alone with you."

A smile crept onto her face. "Really?"

"Really."

Anna's felt her face turn red. "I guess you're right; we don't have to worry about them right now," she gave in. She hugged him tightly, and he kissed the top of her head. "I love you."

Kristoff felt his heart explode with happiness as her words rang through his head like a bell. "I love you, too," he replied. Now, hearing his own words, he simply couldn't wait any longer. He pulled away from her embrace and pulled out a small red box from his pocket. He had planned to do this later, but why wait? He got down on one knee and opened the box to reveal a sparkling ring, with a beautiful diamond in the center. "Will you marry me?"

Anna gasped at the suddenness of his proposal, and for a moment she simply stood there, awestruck. People walking by stopped when they saw Kristoff on his knee, and some said "Aww!" Just as Kristoff began to feel nervous, Anna's face broke out in a smile and tears spilled down her cheeks.

"Yes!" she squealed as she tackled him into the snow and kissed him passionately. The people watching clapped for the happy couple as Kristoff slipped the ring on her finger. It fit her perfectly.

.:.^*^.:.

"You really weren't kidding when you said that this place was beautiful in winter," Elsa said, staring out at the clearing in front of her. The lake was frozen solid, and people were happily ice skating on it. The surrounding trees were covered in a thick layer of white snow.

"Isn't it?" Johan said. "This is everyone's favorite lake to skate on."

"Can you skate?" Elsa asked.

Johan shrugged. "Sort of," he replied. "I usually end up lying on the ice before long."

Elsa smirked. "You know, I think I'd like to see that," she said. She used her magic to make pairs of skates appear on their feet.

Johan's expression showed that he was not prepared to skate. "You know, I'd say no because I hate how embarrassing it is to fall on the ice, but I have this feeling that you won't take 'no' for an answer."

Elsa chuckled. "Nope."

"Didn't think so."

Holding on to his hands, Elsa led him onto the ice and tried to help him stay on his feet until he started to get his bearings. When she let go, he almost lost his balance, but he didn't fall.

"See!" Elsa said. "You _can_ do it!"

"No, don't say that! You'll jinx it!" Johan replied.

Despite his lack of confidence, Johan eventually got to a point where he wasn't stumbling anymore, and he glided smoothly across the ice with Elsa beside him.

As they skated along, Elsa noticed a group of three girls looking at them. The one that seemed to be the ringleader of the group seemed to be giving Elsa the evil eye.

"Hey, who's that girl over there that keeps glaring at us?" the queen asked.

Johan followed her gaze and quickly looked away when he made eye contact with the girl. He sighed, annoyed.

"That's Linnea," he replied, "the most popular girl in town our age. She's been trying to get me to go out with her since I met her at the ball my father held for me when I turned eighteen. Try not to make eye contact; maybe she'll leave us alone."

Glancing over at Linnea again, Elsa saw her beckon her two friends to follow her, and they began skating in their direction.

"Aw, man," Johan said. "Alright, let's just keep going; I'll handle this."

Johan took Elsa's hand and kept his eyes on where he was going, pretending not to notice as Linnea skated up next to him.

"Hi, Johan," she said in a singsong voice.

"Hello, Linnea," he replied, not looking at her.

"We were just going to get some pastries," Linnea said. "You want to come?"

"Thanks, but I have other plans," the prince replied.

"Other plans, huh?" She turned her gaze to Elsa. "I see. You finally got a date, huh?"

Johan didn't say anything. Elsa opened her mouth to reply.

"We're just friends," she said, clearly unsure if that was the right thing to say.

"I see," Linnea said. Falling behind the two royals for a moment, she skated around so she was next to Elsa. "What's your name?" she asked the queen.

"Elsa."

"How long have you known Johan?"

"A few days."

"I see," Linnea said, clearly unimpressed by her at this point. "Do you think, Elsa, that after these few days that you've known Johan, you'd like to become more than 'just friends' with him?"

"Leave her alone, Linnea," Johan said, looking at the girl for the first time.

"I'm just asking a question," Linnea said, not faltering under his gaze, "and I was hoping for an answer."

"I don't really know," Elsa said, trying to keep her cool.

"Hmm," Linnea said, unconvinced. "Hypothetically speaking," she said, "if you did want to be more than just friends with him, do you at all think, that after only knowing him a few days, he would want you when he's known me for four years?"

"I would absolutely want her, because I've never wanted you!" Johan yelled. "I didn't want you four years ago, and I don't want you now! Get over it!"

"Well, she's not exactly much of a conversationalist, wouldn't you agree girls?" Linnea said, looking back at her two friends, who smirked and nodded in agreement. "Tell me, Elsa, are you royalty?"

Elsa was beginning to lose her patience with this girl. "Yes," she said, glaring at her.

Linnea remained unimpressed. "Of what poor, pitiful, deprived country are you the ruler?"

Suddenly, the ice under Linnea's feet was no longer there, and she plunged into the freezing water. She yelled for help as her two friends came to her aid. Johan stopped and watched with a look of amazement and amusement on his face. He glanced at Elsa, who had an evil smirk on her face. When the girls had gotten the shivering Linnea out of the water, the three of them watched in amazement as the ice once again froze over the spot that Linnea had just fallen in. They looked up at Elsa, who smirked at them as she answered Linnea's question.

"Arendelle."

Johan laughed as he and Elsa turned around and left the frightened girls as they sat staring at them agape. Elsa joined in his laughing as they skated across the pond.

"I've never seen Linnea with that look on her face!" Johan said.

"Yeah, I tend to get that look a lot," Elsa joked.

"That was kinda mean, though," he said.

"Hey, at least I didn't freeze the ice over top of her!" Elsa replied.

Johan laughed hard, and he stopped looking where he was going. He didn't have time to notice that Elsa had moved away from him before he fell into a snow bank at the side of the lake.

Elsa gritted her teeth as she skated back to him.

"I'm sorry; are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Johan said, catching his breath.

Elsa held out her hand to him. "Here, let me help you."

He smirked as he took her hand. "No, let me help you!"

She gasped as he pulled her down into the snow with him. He laughed as she playfully punched his arm. Elsa made the skates disappear from their feet, and they got up and went to a different part of the park. Sitting on a bench, they spent the rest of their time talking and laughing until the hands of the clock tower told them it was time to return to the castle for dinner.

.:.^*^.:.

Elsa and Johan were the first to get back to the castle, closely followed by Anna and Kristoff. Anna excitedly showed Elsa her ring and asked for Elsa's blessing on their marriage. Elsa simply revealed that Kristoff had already asked her for her blessing the day before, and she had said yes.

Finally, Julie entered the hall and joined them at their table. Noah had to go back to his post.

"So Julie, how was your day with Noah?" Anna asked, after showing her the ring, of course.

"Oh, it was great!" Julie replied. "We danced in the town square for a while and then had lunch together. I had so much fun."

The others at the table smiled at each other and started talking about their own days. Anna eyed Kristoff and smiled when Elsa and Johan told their story from the park.

As soon as she was done eating, Julie stood up.

"Excuse me, everyone," she said, pushing her chair in.

"Where are you going?" Johan asked curiously.

"Noah asked me to meet him for a walk in the gardens after I was done dinner," she replied.

The others looked at each other in shock.

"Oh," Johan replied. "...okay. Have fun."

"Thanks," Julie said as she walked out, not noticing their stunned expressions as she walked out.

As soon as she was gone, Anna looked at Johan.

"You didn't set this up, did you?" she asked.

"No. You?"

"No."

As they all glanced at each other for answers, they came to a silent conclusion as to how to find out. Leaving the Great Hall, they made their way to the gardens, where they split into their respective pairs to watch Julie and Noah from where they wouldn't be seen. Elsa and Johan hid behind a column on one side of the gardens, and Anna and Kristoff hid behind a bush on the other side of the gardens.

From each of their vantage points, they could see Julie sitting on the bench by the fountain with Noah.

"I had such a great time today," the princess said, holding his hand.

"Me too," Noah replied.

"I wish we could spend more time together like this."

"Me too."

Julie looked up at him to see him smiling and gazing at her. She blushed under his gaze.

"What?"

"You're staring at me."

"I know," he said. "I wouldn't want to stare at anything else." She looked up into his eyes as he continued. "I just keep thinking about how much you've grown since I met you. You were so little then, but now you've grown into a brilliant young woman."

She let out a small laugh as she stared down into her lap.

"And you're so beautiful," he said.

That really caught her attention. Her brown eyes met his hazel ones, and then suddenly they were really close. He leaned in, their lips only inches apart, until his met hers in a passionate kiss that she quickly returned.

In their respective corners of the garden, the others were celebrating. Anna was jumping up and down, and Kristoff had to calm her down to keep her quiet. Elsa and Johan hugged each other tightly, before they pulled away blushing furiously.

Noah and Julie pulled apart, smiling as they let their foreheads rest on each other.

"I love you," Noah said.

"I love you, too," Julie replied. Then she chuckled. "My brother's gonna kill you, though."

Noah laughed. "Nah, only if I do something wrong. And I'm not gonna let that happen."

"Good," Julie said, leaning her head on his shoulder. "And besides, Johan would only be trying to protect me. It's just what brothers do."

Noah chuckled, but looking up at his face, Julie noticed he looked sad.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing," he replied. "I'm just thinking."

"What are you thinking about?"

"My brother," he said.

Julie stared at him, surprised. "You never mentioned you had a brother."

"Yeah," he said. "I had several brothers, actually, but I was the oldest. And my brother Daniel was the second oldest. He was two years younger than me, and we were really close when we were little. But as we started to get old enough where we could understand our father's cruelty toward the world, he started to embrace it, while I tried to stay away from it and get closer with our mother. My father clearly liked him better and wished that I, as the heir of the family, were more like him, but I still held on to the hope that my innocent young brother was somewhere behind the boy that my father had created.

"When I ran away, I woke him up to try to convince him to come with me, but instead, he raised the alarm to our father. I barely made it out of there."

Noah sighed as Julie listened sadly to his story.

"I just can't help but feel that I let him down. I could have protected him from our father's wicked ways. But I was too late. The loving brother I once knew had become my father's soldier."

Julie stared at him silently as she took it all in. The others watching also felt the story tug at their heartstrings.

"Wow," Julie said after a moment. "You never told me that before."

Noah shrugged. "I don't like to think about it. I loved my brother but I couldn't protect him." He looked up at her and took her hand in his own. "But I promise you," he said, "I'm not gonna fail again. I love you, Julie, and I'm never gonna let anything happen to you."

Julie felt a tear form in her eye. "I love you, too," she said before leaning up to capture his lips once again.

From the sidelines, Anna, Kristoff, Elsa, and Johan, smiled triumphantly at each other and at the happy couple.

What none of them knew was that there was another pair of eyes watching the scene.

* * *

_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N: I'm going to warn you now that this chapter and the next couple chapters will be relatively short, but they are very, _very _important! This is where the action starts, so read and review!**

**Disclaimer: Don't ask me what it's like to own the rights to Frozen; I haven't the slightest idea, because I don't own the rights to Frozen!**

* * *

Elsa tossed and turned in bed that night. She had too much on her mind to sleep.

It was great to see Julie and Noah finally confess their feelings for each other, but all Elsa could think about was Johan. She had grown so close with him throughout this ordeal, and she was beginning to question how she really felt about him. It felt a little like it did back when they were fourteen, only now, the feeling was stronger, and she could see the way he looked at her, his eyes showing all the care in the world.

_Does he love me?_ she asked herself.

She thought about what he had said in the park about rather having her than Linnea. Elsa couldn't decide whether that was more meant to show his love for her or his hate for Linnea. But there were certainly other times that he had definitely seemed to show some feelings for her. She had been touched that he had always trusted her even when she didn't trust herself.

_Do I love him?_

Her heart seemed to say yes, but her head told her she couldn't. She just couldn't get over the fact that true love just seemed too good to be true, at least, for her.

Besides, there were other complications too. Suppose they did love each other, and they started courting and wanted to get married. She was the queen of her kingdom, and he was the heir of his. The moment he became the king of Landvik they wouldn't be able to be together because they each had a different kingdom to take care of. The only way it could work would be if one of them gave up their throne. Elsa knew she couldn't be the one to do that, because Anna could never handle being queen. And she could never ask it of Johan; she would never do that to him.

Elsa rolled over and sighed. She knew that even if she did love him, it would never work. She wished could stay with him forever, but now that the snow was clear enough that they could go outside, it wouldn't be long before ships could leave, and as much as she didn't want to go...

Then, she heard it.

_Elsa._

The voice. That voice in her head from the man on the beach.

_Come to me._

Sitting up, Elsa looked out her window, and sure enough, standing on the snow-covered beach was the hooded stranger. She got out of bed, put her slippers on, and grabbed her cloak from her closet. For a moment, she stopped as she started to come to her senses.

_What the hell am I doing?_ she thought. But then she heard the voice again.

_Elsa._

Her thought of caution suddenly disappeared as quickly as it had come on. She walked out her door, with the hypnotic voice as her guide. She didn't notice the chill in the air she left behind her as she walked through the halls. All she could think about was finding out what the man had to say. Before she knew it, she stood on the walkway around the garden at the same spot she stood on the night of the wedding that overlooked the beach. She hesitated for a moment, until she heard the voice again.

_Come to me._

She walked forward onto the beach and didn't stop until she was right in front of the man. She couldn't see his face in the darkness. Only his eyes.

Then he spoke to her. Not in her head, but actually speaking.

"You may wonder why I have called you out here, Snow Queen."

Suddenly, Elsa felt uneasy. Not just because of what he said, but because she finally realized what she may have just gotten herself into. Now if something went wrong, she had nowhere to run.

"I have two reasons for summoning you here, and they both lead to the same purpose. You see, long ago, one of my ancestors had been cheated by the people and rulers of this kingdom. They accused him of wizardry, and would not give him any respect or care, but the truth was that his family had been cursed by a witch. When he could not get help from anyone, he vowed that one day his family would rule this kingdom and have the power to make people suffer the way he suffered. Well the time has come for me to avenge him. So I need you to bring a message to the royals."

Elsa quietly swallowed as she listened.

"Tell them that I am coming for the throne, and should they not give it to me, the consequences shall be dire."

Elsa's eyes widened as she took this in. She wanted to run away from this man as fast as she could, and get as far away from him as possible. But she couldn't move, and he got closer to her as he spoke again.

"As for my other reason for calling you out here? Well that's easy. Why you? Well you have magic, and should you chose to help the other royals fight me, you would quite possibly be a bit of a threat to me. I can't have that."

Elsa gasped as she felt a sharp pain hit her abdomen and slash diagonally across her skin up to her chest. She gripped her stomach and collapsed into the snow. Looking up, she saw a knife in his hand. The very tip of it was covered in blood. He looked down on her, his cold, hazel eyes piercing her like arrows.

"That is my warning to you to stay out of my way," he said.

He grinned at her wickedly as she grunted in pain. The snow around her had turned a sickening red. She could see the pinpricks of black in the corners of her eyes and tried to fight it off. She knew she had to stay awake to get to safety, but she was losing so much blood.

But over the sound of the waves, she could faintly hear another voice calling to her.

"Elsa!"

His voice was her salvation, her saving grace, and she whispered his name with what little strength she could muster.

"Johan..."

* * *

**_Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63_**


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N: And so the story continues! (with an awkward moment thrown in there just for good measure! :) You've been warned!)**

**Disclaimer: Did I mention that I don't own Frozen?**

* * *

Johan had followed Elsa out when he realized it was her that was in the hallway. The drop in temperature gave it away. He knew that whatever she was up for at that hour could not have been anything good, and now it turned out he was right. He had stopped when he saw her with the mysterious hooded man on the beach. He couldn't hear them, but when she suddenly collapsed in a heap on the ground, he took off running.

"Elsa!"

As he called her name, he saw the hooded man look up and take off, swiftly running in the opposite direction. With the capture of this man on his mind, Johan ran after him, but the man was too fast, and he lost sight of him when he ran off the beach.

Turning around, he ran over to where Elsa lay in the snow. He gasped when he realized that snow was red. He bent down and rolled her onto her back. Her eyes were open, but only just.

"Elsa?" he said, brushing her hair out of her face. "Oh my god! What did he do to you?"

He heard her whisper his name as he examined the wound on her torso. The cut wasn't as deep as he was afraid it would be, but it still spilled out a lot of blood. She moaned as she closed her eyes, despite her best efforts to keep them open.

"C'mon, stick with me, Elsa," he said as he wrapped his cloak around the wound to try to stop the bleeding. "Try to stay awake. You're gonna be okay."

He lifted her up bridal style and carried her back to the castle as fast as he could. Several guards were there to meet him, having been alerted when they heard the commotion. Johan kept walking as he barked orders at them.

"Find the castle doctor and tell him to meet me in the Queen of Arendelle's chambers immediately. And find Princess Anna and tell her that her sister is hurt."

"Right away, Your Highness," they said before rushing off.

He carried her to her room and placed her on top of her bed. He took the cloak she had been wearing and laid it across the desk where it would be out of the way. He sat on the side of the bed by her head and took her hand in his own.

At the feel of his hand, Elsa opened her eyes slightly and looked at him.

"Johan?" she said weakly.

"Shh," he said, brushing back her hair with his free hand. "It's okay. You're gonna be alright." He kissed her hand when suddenly the door burst open.

"Elsa!" Anna cried, running up to her sister.

"Anna?" Elsa whispered at the sound of her sister's voice.

"Oh my god! Johan, what happened?" the princess cried.

"I'm not entirely sure," he replied. "I heard her get up and I followed her. I saw her standing on the beach in front of a man with a hood, and he was saying something to her, but I don't know what. Then all of a sudden I saw her collapse to the ground and I ran to her. I tried to catch the man but he got away. Then when I saw that she was wounded I brought her back here."

"What did he do to her?" Anna asked.

"There's a big slash across her torso. It looks like it's from a knife. I wrapped it in my cloak to try to stop the bleeding."

"Do you think she'll be okay?"

"I think so, but we need the doctor to help."

Right on cue, the doctor entered the room to take care of Elsa. Johan helped him unwrap the cloak from around her waist and the doctor briefly examined the wound.

"You two may want to leave," he said to Anna and Johan. "I'm going to need to take off her nightgown in order to properly take care of the injury.

They nodded, and Anna made her way to the door. She waited for Johan as he lingered at Elsa's side before finally letting go of her hand and starting to exit. But before he could get very far, Elsa stopped him.

"No... Johan," she begged, reaching out and grabbing his sleeve. "Please... don't leave me..."

Johan's eyes widened as he stared at her. Her eyes were begging him to stay. He looked up at the doctor, who gave him a reassuring nod. The prince sighed as he looked at Anna.

"Go," he said. "Get some sleep. I'll stay with her."

Anna nodded and left the room closing the door behind her.

Johan pulled the chair from the desk up next to the bed. He helped sit Elsa up so the doctor could remove the nightgown, which left her in only her underwear. As he lay her back down, Johan tried to keep his eyes on her face and away from her bare chest, making him blush in embarrassment. Of course, though, the fact that she was indecently exposed was the last thing Elsa cared about at the moment. In her daze, she tried to ignore the agonizing pain from the wound and focus on the fact that Johan was by her side to keep her safe.

"Your Majesty, I am going to stitch up the gash now," the doctor said. "This is going to sting quite a bit, but I need you to try to resist the urge to move if you can, okay?"

Elsa nodded, and Johan held her hand to comfort her. As the doctor began sewing the skin back together, she gritted her teeth in pain and tightly squeezed Johan's hand. He simply squeezed her hand back in encouragement. When the doctor was done, the prince helped Elsa to sit up again as he wrapped a gauze tightly around her torso and chest.

"She'll be alright," the doctor said as Johan lay the queen back down. "Just make sure she rests and doesn't put too much strain on those stitches or they may break."

"Of course, Doctor," Johan replied as he laid her back down and pulled the covers over her. "Thank you."

The doctor walked out, and Johan sat down again, not wanting to leave Elsa's side. He kissed her forehead and brushed the hair out of her face. At his touch, Elsa drowsily opened her eyes and looked at him.

"Johan?" she said. "I'm sorry."

"Shh," he said, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb. "It's okay. Just go to sleep."

She obeyed, and as soon as she shut her eyes, she was asleep. Johan stared at the beautiful woman in front of him for a while, until his eyelids got heavy, and he too fell asleep in his chair.

* * *

_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	12. Chapter 11

**A/N: So, I really think you guys are gonna like this chapter... but that's all I'm gonna say! Just read! *wink wink* ;-)**

**Disclaimer: Say it with me now: "I do not own Frozen."**

* * *

Elsa's eyes fluttered open to see the sunlight pouring in through the window. It took her a moment to remember what had happened last night. She remembered the man slashing her across the chest with his knife, but after that it was kind of hazy.

As it all came flooding back to her bit by bit, she began to sit up, her head turned toward the window. She grunted as she felt a sudden stab of pain in her torso from twisting her body in the wrong way. As the ache quickly dissipated, she straightened herself out and sighed.

"Hey, you're awake," a voice behind her said.

Elsa gasped as she turned around to see Johan sitting in the chair next to her bed.

"It's okay! It's just me," he reassured her.

"Johan," she said. "What are you doing here?"

He shrugged. "I... didn't want to leave you alone," he replied. "You gave me such a fright last night."

Elsa noticed how worn out he looked. His eyes were sleep-laden, and he wore only shorts and an undershirt. Elsa blushed as she realized that the only thing covering her from the waist up was the gauze that the doctor had wrapped around her. Self-consciously, she discreetly pulled the blanket up to her chest, blushing in embarrassment.

Johan chuckled at her discomfort. "Relax," he said. "I'm not seeing anything I shouldn't be seeing."

Elsa loosened her grip on the blanket a little bit, but her face only became redder than it already was. Clearing her throat, she scooted further away from him and motioned for him to sit next to her on the bed. He sat down on top of the covers and looked her in the eye, smiling. Throwing her arms around his neck, she pulled him into a tight embrace, which he carefully returned, trying not to put too much strain on her body. He stroked her soft hair with his hand as she tried to control her breathing.

"Elsa?" Johan said, pulling away and looking her in the eye. "What happened last night?"

The queen sighed, breaking eye contact with him and staring out in front of her. "Well," she began, "I was trying to sleep last night, when... I heard a voice... in my head."

Johan's eyes widened as he took this in, but he didn't say anything as she continued.

"This wasn't the first time this happened. It happened when I was out in the gardens on the night of the wedding. I heard the voice, and I saw the man on the beach. He kept saying 'come to me', and he was saying that he needed to say something important. I almost went over there then, but then you came, and I stopped."

"Why didn't you tell me then?" the prince asked.

"Because it happened so fast I wasn't sure if I had imagined it. It just doesn't make sense to me. I don't understand how he could have put his voice in my head and why it made me dumb enough to go out there."

She looked up at Johan, who stared into his lap pensively.

"So it's true," he whispered.

"What?"

"The stories," he said. "Legend has it that centuries ago, a man robbed a witch, and she placed a curse on his family. The curse held that this man, his firstborn son, his son's firstborn son, and so on would have the ability to place their voice in another's head. The man brushed it off and started using this new ability for his gain, but soon the people realized what he was doing and accused him of wizardry. He tried to get help from the king to secure his rights, but the king would not help him. It was then that he supposedly declared that one day his family would take over this kingdom and avenge him for this injustice. People were sent after him, but he had disappeared, supposedly into anonymity."

Elsa listened intently. "That's the same story the man told me last night about one of his ancestors," she said. "He left out the parts about this man's cruelty though."

"Well, the story has been widely regarded as an urban myth, but there's no doubt that the man that attacked you last night was a descendant of the man in the story. The firstborn son of a firstborn son. There have been people who have claimed to hear voices in their heads over the years, and people have dubbed this family the 'mind manipulators.' They always would say that the voice was hypnotic and drew them in, which would explain why you couldn't resist going out there last night."

"That makes sense," Elsa said, remembering all that the man had said to her last night. "And the man told me to bring a message, too."

This caught Johan's attention. "What?"

"He said to tell the royals that he is coming for the throne, and that there would be dire consequences should it not be given to him."

Johan's eyes widened, and he leaned back on the headboard at a loss for words. He shook his head as he thought everything through.

"But something still doesn't make sense," he said. "Why would he go after you? You're not someone he would have to eliminate in order to get the throne."

"He was threatening me to stay out of his way," Elsa explained. "With my powers, I'd be a threat to him if I were to help you guys fight back. I think he wanted to prove that he could be just as much of threat to me, and to you guys, as I could be to him."

She sighed and shook her head as tears started to form in her eyes.

"The thing is, his threat is working," she cried. "I was so scared last night, and I'm scared now. Not just for myself, but for my family, for this kingdom, and for you."

As their eyes met, she couldn't hold her tears in anymore, and he pulled her close to him, letting her sob into his shirt. She cried until she couldn't cry anymore, and he held her through it all.

"Shh," he said as she started to calm down. "It'll be alright. I promise, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you."

At his comforting words, Elsa pulled away and looked up at him. He smiled tenderly at her as she lost herself in his eyes. Caressing her face with one hand, he moved in closer to her until their faces were only inches apart. Closing his eyes, he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers.

Elsa hadn't been prepared for the kiss, but she closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck as she melted into his embrace. He kissed her passionately, with one hand on her head and the other on the small if her back. His heart was jumping for joy as he held her closer than he ever had. They only pulled back once the need for air became too desperate.

They sat there silent for a moment, catching their breath. Johan leaned his forehead on hers, and they smiled at each other as she leaned on his chest and he held her close.

"I love you," he said.

She opened her eyes at this and looked up at him. "Really?"

He smiled at her and nodded. "More than anything."

She smiled. "I love you, too."

With a feeling of victory roaring in his chest, Johan pulled her up and kissed her again. But before they could get too into it, there was a knock at the door, and Anna barged in.

"Hey, Johan, is she awake- oh!"

Her eyes widened as she realized what she had interrupted. Johan and Elsa quickly pulled away from each other, but the damage was done. The look on Anna's face was a priceless mix of shock, excitement, and embarrassment all at once. Elsa made a mental note to bust her on it later.

"I'm so sorry! Bad timing!" Anna stuttered. "I'll just- I- I'll come back... later."

She awkwardly backed out of the room and closed the door. Johan and Elsa looked at each other in embarrassment before cracking up laughing.

"You know," Johan said once they had calmed down, "you should probably get up and dressed. Captain Gunnarson told me to bring you to his office so you could tell him what happened as soon you woke up."

Elsa smirked, a hint of mischief sparkling in her eye. "He can wait another minute."

She pulled him down and kissed him fiercely, and he gratefully kissed her back.

Outside the door, Anna pumped her fist in victory.

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_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	13. Chapter 12

**A/N: Finally, a chapter that's a decent length! This chapter has a lot of fluff, so read and review! (Seriously, review! Let's make the push for 100!) :-)**

**Disclaimer: No, I don't own Frozen. Do people dispute that?**

* * *

After they had concluded their make-out session, Johan brought Elsa to Captain Gunnarson's study. She retold the story of what happened, which they both had a feeling they'd be doing a lot of today. The Captain assured them that the entire guard would be on the lookout for the man she described.

When he dismissed them, they went their separate ways through the castle. Elsa went to talk to Anna, and Johan went to find Noah.

He eventually found his friend in the lounge where the guards could go when they were off duty. Noah sat there alone on a couch, and he smiled at Johan when he walked in.

"Well, look who's here!" he exclaimed. "Way to go, lover boy!"

"How'd you find out about that?" Johan asked.

"Anna told Julie, and then Julie told me," Noah replied.

Johan rolled his eyes, sitting down next to him. "Should I start busting on you for how you finally hooked up with Julie?" he teased.

Noah chuckled and smirked at him. "Oh, come on, I'm not as oblivious as you think I am," he said. "I can do the math. You guys set us up!"

"Maybe," Johan said. "Are you thanking us for it now?"

"Yes I am," Noah replied.

They chuckled and sat there for a moment before Noah changed the topic.

"So," he said, "what exactly did Elsa say happened last night?"

"She was attacked and given a message to bring back. It was a threat for the throne."

"Do you guys have any clues as to who it was?"

Johan sighed. "Well, we do have one clue," he said, before looking Noah in the eye. "Have you ever heard the legends of the mind manipulators?"

Noah's eyes widened, and he leaned back on the couch. He took deep breaths as he stared into space, seemingly in awe.

"Noah?" Johan said, snapping him back to attention.

Noah sat up and cleared his throat. "I have heard the stories," he said, "but I have always thought it was a myth."

"Well, they're true alright," Johan said. "Elsa heard the man's voice in her head last night before she followed it outside. This man is one of them, no doubt."

"Yeah," Noah said, but he clearly was on edge about the whole thing.

"Are you okay?" Johan asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Noah replied. "It's just... hard to take it in- how big of a challenge it's going to be, I mean."

Johan still felt something else was bothering Noah, but he wasn't going to push it, since Noah clearly didn't want to talk about it.

"Okay," Johan said, getting up. "I guess I'll see you later then."

"Okay," Noah replied. He watched Johan walk out. As soon as he was gone, Noah leaned over and propped his head up on his hands. "Oh my god..."

.:.^*^.:.

"Soooooo, how was it!?"

"Anna, I got attacked last night, and that's the first thing you ask me?"

"You've gotta be sick of telling that story by now. Just tell us about your morning with Johan!"

"Thanks for backing me up, Julie."

Elsa sat on Anna's bed, with Anna and Julie huddled around her.

"Oh come on!" Anna begged. "Please?"

Elsa blushed. "Alright, it was... nice."

"That's all you can say?" Julie exclaimed. "'It was nice'?"

"What else do you want me to say?"

"Well, how did it make you feel?"

Elsa couldn't keep a schoolgirl-ish grin off her face. "It made me feel... like all the rest of the world had disappeared," she said lovingly. "I felt like I was floating on air and nothing on earth could bring me down."

"Aww!" the two princesses cooed.

"That's so _romantic_!" Anna exclaimed. "The queen has found her Prince Charming!"

"Yeah..." Elsa said, but a sad frown replaced the giddy smile on her face as she trailed off.

"What's wrong?" Julie asked, noticing Elsa's sudden change in mood.

Elsa looked up at them. "It's just sad that I won't get to be with him," she replied sadly.

"What?" the princesses exclaimed simultaneously.

"Why?" Anna asked.

"I'm the Queen of Arendelle, and he's the Crown Prince of Landvik," Elsa explained. "As soon as he becomes King, we'll both have different kingdoms that we have to take care of and provide for. We wouldn't be able to see each other very much, even if we did get married. And the neither of the kingdoms' Royal Councils would approve of a marriage like that, because if we're not seeing each other, there's no way for us to produce a heir for either kingdom."

Anna and Julie sat silently as they took this all in. They hadn't thought of this before, and they knew Elsa was right.

"There's gotta be some way you can get around that," Julie offered.

"Only if one of us were to abdicate our throne," Elsa said. "I could never be so selfish as to ask that of him."

"But he never wanted to be king," Julie said. "He's said so himself. He only works for it because he knows it's his duty and had no legitimate reason to get out of it. And he wanted to please our father."

"But he's still worked so hard, and I don't want him wasting all of that for me," Elsa said.

"What if you were to abdicate your throne?" Anna pitched in.

"Anna, would you really want to be queen?"

"I would do it for you."

"But do you really think you could handle being queen?"

Anna opened her mouth to protest, but she sighed in defeat after seeing the look that Elsa was giving her. "No," she replied sadly. "You're right."

Elsa smiled sadly at her. "I appreciate that you would do that for me, but I couldn't do that to you, either."

Anna returned the smile. "Thanks."

The three girls sat in silence for a few moments before Julie spoke up again.

"What are you gonna tell him?" she asked.

Elsa sighed. "I'm not gonna tell him anything right now," she replied. "He'll figure it out eventually. I just wanna enjoy the time I have with him now."

"You may not have much time with him left. The fjords are clearing up," Julie said.

Elsa smirked at them. "Well," she said, "I think I just _may_ not want to travel while I'm injured!" She indicated the gauze wrapped around her chest, and the girls giggled at her deviousness. Then she looked at Julie. "Besides, I don't want to leave when you guys are in danger."

"What do you mean?" Julie asked.

Elsa sighed and retold the story of what happened the night before for already the third time today.

.:.^*^.:.

That night, Elsa lay in her bed reading a book when she heard a knock at her door.

"Come in," she said.

Johan walked in, once again looking like he was ready for bed in his shorts and undershirt.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," Elsa replied, sitting up and putting the book down on the nightstand. "What's up?"

He shrugged. "Nothing, I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

Elsa smiled as he walked over. "I'm fine," she said as he sat on the bed and leaned over to kiss her. She closed her eyes to savor the moment. He pulled back sooner than she would have liked, but she simply pulled him back down and kissed him again until he pulled away again, gasping for air.

He smiled at her as he caught his breath, and he brushed her hair out of her face, trailing his finger down her cheek.

"I wish I could stay here so I could make sure nothing happens to you," he said.

She smiled and smacked him playfully on his chest. "I'm a big girl," she teased. "I don't need a babysitter. I can take care of myself."

Johan smiled at her. "I know you can," he said. He kissed her forehead and started to get up. "Sweet dreams, okay?"

Elsa gazed at him sadly as he started to walk toward the door. "Well, I never said you had to leave though," she said.

He turned back and smirked at her. "But I thought you don't need a babysitter!" he teased.

She smiled widely at him as he walked back. "I don't want a babysitter. I just want you," she said.

"You want me to stay? I'll stay!"

"Then stay."

"Alright, then," he said sitting down in the chair next to the bed. But Elsa shook her head at him.

"No..." she said as she moved over on the bed and patted the spot next to her. "Stay."

Johan's look of amusement turned into one of shock. "You want me to stay with you _in the bed?_"

Elsa nodded. "Just to sleep," she said. "I just want you near."

His look of shock still remained, but he nodded slowly. "Alright," he said. He hesitantly climbed into the bed next to her, and he tried to relax as she snuggled in close to him.

"See?" she said, putting out the candles with an icy breeze. "Nothing too heated. I just want you with me."

The tension in his body went away as he felt her soft hair under his chin, and he put his arms around her.

Elsa smiled as she leaned into his embrace. They lay like that for a while, and Elsa had almost gotten to sleep when she heard it.

_Elsa._

The voice.

Her eyes burst open and she put her hands on her head, trying to will the voice away. But it was no use.

Johan noticed her sudden movement. "Elsa?" he said. "Are you okay?" He looked at her and saw her staring blankly up at the ceiling with wide, fear-filled eyes.

"Elsa?" he said, putting one of his hands on top on hers. "Elsa, what's wrong?"

But she couldn't hear his panicked calls as the voice rang through her head.

_You yearn to stay, but be warned. I am more powerful than you think. I have a number of followers. You won't even know who to trust anymore. This is my last warning. Get out of Landvik. Or you will suffer. And your family will suffer. That is a guarantee._

Elsa found herself hyperventilating as the voice echoed in her head and then faded away. She tried to control her breathing as she finally heard Johan's voice.

"Elsa?"

She turned her head and looked him in the eye as he bent over her. She didn't say anything as he caressed her face with his hand.

He sighed. "You heard the voice again, didn't you?"

She nodded as she threw her arm around his neck and sobbed. He stroked the back of her hair as he held her in his comforting arms.

"What did it say?" he asked.

Elsa calmed herself down to respond. "He said that I needed to get out of Landvik, or that I would suffer, and my family would suffer," she replied.

Johan pulled back and looked her in the eye. "Then you have to get out of here as soon as the fjords clear," he said sadly.

"No!" Elsa cried. "I'm not going anywhere!"

"If you stay, you and your family will be in danger!"

"But if I leave, Johan, you'll die!"

Johan sighed. "Don't worry about me," he said. "I'll be fine."

"Yes you will, because I'm not leaving."

He realized there was not much point in trying to argue with her. "If you get hurt, I would never be able to live with myself."

"Hey," Elsa said, smiling at him comfortingly. "I can take care of myself."

He chuckled slightly. "I know," he said. "Just be careful."

"I will," she replied as they lay back down. He held her in his arms as they tried to go to sleep again. She opened her eyes though as she thought of something.

"Johan?"

"Hmm?"

"The voice said I wouldn't be able to know who to trust," she said. He looked at her as she continued. "What do you think that means?"

Johan looked her in the eye lovingly. "I don't know," he replied. "But what I do know-" He kissed her lips softly. "-is that you can always trust me. I promise."

Elsa smiled at him. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

After another few minutes, she fell asleep in his arms.

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_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	14. Chapter 13

**A/N: Okay guys, so I've got some bad news. (Well, bad for you, anyway.) I am leaving to go on vacation on Saturday for two weeks so I won't be able to post again until August 3. It pains me to leave you for so long, and I almost wish I didn't have to go... oh who am I kidding!? I'm going on a Disney Cruise and then to Disney World! I'm so excited! :-D I'll say hi to Anna and Elsa for you guys! But if it makes you feel any better (which it probably won't) I'm out of chapters to post anyway. Don't worry; I'll be writing while I'm gone.**

**In the meantime, here's my next chapter. And by the way, can we leave some reviews on this one? I only got two reviews on the last one! (By the way, thank you to the two of you that did review; you know who you are!) They don't have to be good reviews! In fact, you're all gonna be hating on me for the cliffhanger at the end of this chapter! Which means... I better start answering the angry emails now...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen. I'm just here for some Frozen Fanfiction Fun! (How's that for alliteration?)**

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Johan awoke the next morning to the beautiful sight of Elsa sleeping beside him. She breathed slowly and looked much more peaceful than she had been last night. Smiling, Johan brushed her messy hair out of her face and placed a soft kiss on her forehead.

Elsa groaned and her eyes fluttered open. She smiled as she saw Johan next to her.

"Good morning," she said.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" the prince asked.

"It's okay," she replied. "I would have woke up soon anyway."

He smiled and kissed her lips softly. When he pulled away, she snuggled in close to him and rested her head on his chest. He placed his hand on the small of her back, and he could feel the gauze wrapped around her through the soft silk of her nightgown.

"How's the wound feel?" he asked.

"It feels much better," she replied. "I mean, it still hurts if I twist in the wrong direction, but it's much better than it was."

He smiled. "Good," he said, stroking the back of her hair with his other hand.

Then there was a knock at the door.

"Johan?" Julie called. "I know you're in there."

Elsa and Johan looked at each other with wide eyes. Elsa sighed, with a half-nervous, half-embarrassed look on her face.

"Well, that's awkward," she whispered.

Johan nodded, with the same embarrassed expression on his face. "Yeah," he replied.

"Should I let her in?" she asked.

He nodded again. "Yeah."

Elsa got up and walked around the bed to the door while Johan sat up and put his feet on the floor. She opened the door to see Julie, whose expression showed that she was just as embarrassed about the situation as they were.

"Morning," she said. "Sorry, I hope I wasn't interrupting anything-"

"No, no, no!" Elsa assured her. "You're fine. We weren't... doing anything."

Julie sighed in relief. "Okay, good," she said, chuckling. "It was just, for a minute there, it looked kind of like- you know!"

Elsa laughed as she shook her head. "No, nothing happened."

"So, anyway," Johan said, "you wanted to see me, Julie?"

"Oh, yeah," Julie replied. "Father said he wanted to see you in his study when you got the chance."

"Oh," Johan said, standing up. "Well, why didn't you just say so?" He turned to Elsa. "I have to go. I'll see you later.

"Okay," she replied, pecking his lips. He started walking toward his room with Julie in tow.

"You know, you need to be careful," she said.

"What do you mean I need to be careful? We didn't do anything!" Johan replied.

"I know; that's not what I mean!" Julie said. "There are a lot of rumors going around about you two. All I'm saying is be careful not to give people the wrong impression."

Johan stopped and looked at her. "Well, then I'm glad it was _you_ that came to find me this morning."

She smirked at him. "You're welcome," she said, before walking off.

Johan quickly got dressed and made his way to his father's study. Taking a deep breath, he hesitantly knocked on the door.

"Come in," King Magnus called.

Johan opened the door and walked in slowly. Magnus smiled at him.

"Good morning, Johan," he said.

"Good morning, father," the prince replied. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes, I did," Magnus replied. "Please, sit."

Johan sat in the chair across from him. He was afraid that he had done something wrong, but his father didn't seem mad at all.

"It feels like I haven't seen you in ages because of everything that's been going on," Magnus said. "And your sister, too! She seems to be very interested in young Noah."

Johan smirked. "Wasn't that always just a matter of time?" he joked.

The king chuckled. "Yes, that's true," he said. "And, you know, people have been saying a lot of things about you, too."

Johan felt his breath catch in his throat. "What do you mean?"

Magnus looked him in the eye. "That was a very noble thing you did the other night, saving Queen Elsa from her attacker," he said seriously. "I am very proud of you, but I keep wondering, why did you do it?"

Johan raised an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean 'why did I do it'? I wasn't just going to leave her there!"

"I understand that," the king said, "but when she was summoned by our clever friend out there, you followed her out. Can you explain that?"

The prince swallowed nervously. "I heard her walking through the hallway," he said, "and I was concerned as to why she was up at that hour. So, I followed her out because I thought something might have been wrong."

Magnus looked at him kindly as he pressed on. "You were concerned for her?" he said.

"Yes."

"You care about her?"

Johan paused, seeing where this was going. "Yes," he whispered.

A moment of silence passed where the king studied the expression on his son's face. He gave him half a smile as he spoke again.

"You can say if you have feelings for her," he said. "I won't be mad if you do."

Johan sighed and looked down at his shoes. "But what if I do?" he asked. "What then?"

Magnus sighed. "Well, the only thing is, it might not be able to work for a certain reason."

The prince looked up at him. "You think that hasn't occurred to me already?" he said. The king didn't respond as Johan sighed and looked down again. "I do love her, but I don't know what to do."

"You do have options," his father said. "She does have a younger sister that she _could_ pass her crown to."

"Technically, but I see two problems," Johan said, getting up and pacing the room. "First, I could never ask that of her. It would be too selfish of me." He turned and looked at his father. "Second, Anna could never take care of Arendelle by herself. You've met her; you and I both know she's just not cut out to be a queen."

Magnus shrugged, knowing that Johan was right.

The prince sighed and crossed his arms as he leaned on the wall. "That means my only other options are to give up my title or end the relationship." A moment of silence asked where Johan had expected the king to answer. When he didn't, the prince looked up at him. "What should I do?"

Magnus sighed. "I do want you to be happy. I do," he said. "But if it were up to me, I wouldn't want you abdicating."

"Leah would be more than capable of being queen, though," Johan said. "And she's already married!"

"I know she would," Magnus said. "It's just, you've worked so hard for it."

"I worked so hard for it because I knew it was my duty," Johan said. "I never really wanted it myself, but I knew it was what you wanted for me."

Magnus stood up and walked around the desk. He turned the empty chair so he was facing his son and put a hand on his shoulder.

"It is what I want for you," he said, "but I also want you to be happy. I may not like it, but if you chose to abdicate so you could be with Queen Elsa, I wouldn't try to stop you."

Johan looked up at his father sadly. "I wouldn't want to let you down like that."

The king gripped his shoulder tighter in reassurance. "You wouldn't be letting me down," he said. "It's your choice. If you truly desire to be with Queen Elsa, then I'm happy for you. Think about it."

.:.^*^.:.

Johan couldn't seem to get himself to do much that day. All he could do was pace the halls and think about his options.

He wanted to be with Elsa, and he never wanted the responsibilities of being king. But he also felt that by abdicating, he would let down a lot of people. He'd be abandoning the people of his kingdom, and he'd be pushing it all on Leah. He had no doubt that she could handle the responsibilities, but he couldn't help but feel that it would be unfair to her.

As he walked past the music room, he heard the gentle sound of a violin. He walked in to see Isak practicing by himself.

"Hey," Johan called.

Isak stopped and turned around. "Hey, Johan," he said. "How are you doing?"

"Good," Johan replied. "Is that Bach?"

"Yeah, Violin Concerto in E major," Isak replied.

"Nice," Johan said, sitting down on the piano bench. "Where's Leah? Doesn't she usually play the accompaniment on the piano when you practice these?"

"Yeah; she went to go talk to Julie for a while," Isak said. "She wanted to give her some 'boy advice.'"

Johan chuckled. "They're too much."

"And yet I married her anyway!" Isak joked before starting to play again.

The younger prince laughed before falling silent. He listened to the soothing sound of the violin as so many thoughts buzzed in his head like bees.

Isak stopped playing as he noticed the distant look on Johan's face. "Are you okay?" he said. "You seem like you have something on your mind."

Johan sighed. "Isak," he began, "have you ever thought about being king?"

Isak looked at him curiously. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, have you ever wanted to be a king?"

He shrugged. "Oh, well, I don't know," he said. "I guess I've never really thought about it before. I've always figured that I would never be king of Haugen because I have two older brothers, and now they both have children, too. The only way I would be a king now is if... something happened to you and Leah became queen."

Johan didn't say anything as he glanced away slightly.

"Why do you ask?" Isak inquired.

Johan looked him in the eye, getting him to think about it for a moment. Isak's eyes widened as it began to sink in.

"Wait a minute," he said. "Are you saying you're going to _abdicate?_"

"Maybe," Johan said with a sigh. "I'm not sure yet."

"But why would you want to?"

Johan stared up at the ceiling. "I think I'm in love with the queen of Arendelle."

Isak's look of worry was suddenly replaced by one of understanding. "Oh," he said. "Well then what's holding you back?"

"I don't want to just shove all of that responsibility on you two," Johan replied. "I just feel like it would be extremely selfish of me."

"Selfish? Absolutely not!" Isak said. "Johan, if you love this woman then go for it! Leah and I would _never _hold it against you. We got to marry for love, and for us to try to keep you from the same, that would make us the selfish ones."

Johan smiled at him sadly. "It's just a big risk," he said. "Once I give up the crown, I can't get it back."

"Well, nothing says you have to decide now," Isak said. "You can spend time with her and court her, but you don't have to decide anything until you know you want to marry her."

Johan thought about this for a moment. "I guess you're right," he said. "I just hope that when I do decide I'll know what I'm doing."

"You will," Isak assured him. "Trust me; you'll know."

The prince smiled gratefully at his brother in law before a guard suddenly burst into the music room.

"Your Highness, I've been looking for you everywhere!"

"What's wrong?" Johan inquired.

The guard panted as he caught his breath. "We think we might have found the man who attacked Queen Elsa."

"Really?" Johan said. "Are you sure?"

"No, we need you and Queen Elsa to confirm it for us. Captain Gunnarson said to meet him in the throne room and we'll bring him there."

"Tell him we'll come as fast as we can!" the prince replied. As the guard rushed out, Johan turned to Isak. "Find Leah and Julie and tell them that they think they caught the attacker."

"Do you want me to bring them down there?"

"Only if they want."

"Alright," Isak said, packing up his violin. "Go, hurry!"

Johan rushed out of the music room and skidded to a halt in front of Elsa's door.

"Elsa?" he yelled, pounding on the door. "Are you decent?"

"You can come in, Johan," he heard Anna reply.

Johan walked in to see the two sisters sitting on the bed talking.

"Elsa, they think they caught the man who attacked you."

"Already?" Elsa replied in disbelief. "Was it really that _easy?_"

"Apparently, but the Captain wants us to meet them in the throne room to confirm that they have the right man," Johan explained.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Anna said. "Let's go!"

The three of them rushed out of the room and ran through the hallways toward the throne room, bumping into Kristoff along the way.

"Kristoff, they think they found the guy that attacked Elsa! Come on!" Anna said.

The mountain man followed the group to the throne room, where Captain Gunnarson was waiting for them.

"Ah, thank you for coming, Your Majesty, Your Highness," he said nervously. Johan and Elsa glanced at each other, wondering why he was so on-edge. "We have taken into custody someone we believe is involved in this conspiracy. We believe he has been playing us since the very beginning."

On cue, two guards dragged someone in through the main doors. Elsa and Anna gasped as they saw who it was while Johan and Kristoff simply stood there with wide eyes.

"Hey, wait a minute!" the familiar voice rang through the air. "Come on, guys! I didn't do anything!"

Behind them, through the side door, Julie entered, with Leah and Isak at her heels. As the suspect's eyes met hers, she simply stared at him, horrified. The guards brought him to a halt and made him look up at the rest of the entourage. They all stared at him with looks of shock and disbelief. Johan looked into the eyes of the one he thought was his friend.

"_Noah?_"

* * *

**Bring on the hate mail!**

_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	15. Chapter 14

**A/N: Welcome back! Thank you all for being so patient with me****. I had a great vacation, but it almost feels good to be home in a sort-of strange way... by the way, just a note, if you ever get a chance to go on a Disney Cruise, I _highly_ recommend it! :-] _Anyway,_ as promised, here's the next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Do I _look _like I own Frozen? Because I don't!**

* * *

"No!" Johan yelled. "That's impossible! There's no way!"

"With all due respect, Captain, what makes you think it would be Noah?" Elsa asked.

"We found him sneaking around last night by the graveyard," the captain explained. "He was approaching another man who got away before we could capture him. They were undoubtedly up to no good or they would not have been in an area that is restricted at night."

"I heard the voice!" Noah yelled. "I heard the voice and I was going to confront the threat!"

"Be quiet!" the captain scolded him. "We noticed then that he matched your description of the man you saw, Your Majesty. Are we correct?"

The guards made Noah look up at the queen. Elsa looked into his eyes. They were filled with fear, rather than with hate and anger like before. But they still seemed like those same, hazel eyes that had stared her down on the beach.

"I don't know," she said as she backed away. But as she thought about the voice, she realized that Noah's voice was at least similar to it if not identical.

"Well, we couldn't prove anything either way!" Johan said desperately. "Not unless we were to prove he's a mind manipulator!"

The room went silent for a moment as everyone took this in. Johan knew that if he was wrong, then he had just given his friend away. Everyone in Landvik knew that the legends said that every mind manipulator is born with a scar-like red mark on the back of their head at the bottom of the hairline.

The captain took a deep breath. "Should we check for the mark, Your Highness?"

Johan looked into Noah's eyes and saw pure panic looking back at him. He didn't want to believe it, but he could tell that Noah was hiding something.

Reluctantly, Johan slowly nodded his head. The guards holding Noah pushed him down and made him bend his head over.

"No!" Noah yelled.

One of the guards pushed back Noah's scraggly hair, revealing a distinctive red mark outlining the bottom of his hairline.

"No," Johan whispered. "It can't be."

Captain Gunnarson glanced at the prince with a look of shock and sadness. "Your Highness?" he said softly. "Shall we put him in a cell?"

Johan took one last look at his friend and closed his eyes as he nodded swiftly. "I'm sorry."

The guards took hold of Noah and started to drag him away.

"Wait!" Noah yelled, struggling against them to try to get the last word in. "Okay! It's true! I have the power! But I never hurt the queen! Or _anybody_ else!"

He gave in as the guards dragged him out of the room toward the dungeon. The remaining people in the room stared after him, shocked and horrified.

Johan turned around as he heard Julie start to cry. She pushed past Leah and Isak and ran out of the room.

"Julie?" Johan said as he began to start in her direction. Anna placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him though.

"Let her go," she said. "Let her mourn by herself."

Johan nodded, and the captain cleared his throat.

"I'm truly sorry about Mr. Jacobsen, Your Highness," he said. "I hope you forgive me for putting you through this. I was only doing my job."

The prince nodded solemnly. "Thank you, Captain," he said. "You are dismissed."

The captain did an abrupt about-face and exited the room. The remaining six people glanced at each other and dispersed as they left the throne room. Leah and Isak went to their room, Anna and Kristoff went to her room, and Elsa led Johan to her room.

As he sat down on Elsa's bed, Johan's thoughts buzzed like bees in his head. He couldn't believe that Noah was behind all this; he just couldn't, and he wouldn't. Noah was his best friend, always there when he needed him. How could he have been playing them from the beginning, especially when 'the beginning' was when Noah was only eight years old?

Elsa sat down next to him and placed a hand on his back as he held his head in his hands. She didn't say anything as he stared blankly in front of him. He shook his head in utter disbelief.

"It can't be him," he said. "It just can't be. I've known Noah for fourteen years, and he would never do anything to hurt any of us."

"Johan?"

"He's like family to us-"

"_Johan?_"

"-I just can't believe-"

"_JOHAN!_"

"What!?"

He looked into her big, blue eyes and could see the sadness in them. She could also see the tears forming in his eyes. She placed her hand on his cheek and shook her head at him.

"Please don't start crying," she begged. "Because then _I'll_ start crying."

Johan chuckled and hugged her to his chest. "Alright," he said. "Don't worry; I'm gonna fix this."

Elsa smiled and looked up at him. "That's one thing I've always loved about you."

He smiled. "What?"

"You never give up over _anything!_"

He laughed and gently kissed her lips. They sat there on the bed in each other's arms for several minutes until there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Elsa said.

Leah walked in and smiled sadly at Johan.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," he replied. "What's up?"

She took a deep breath. "I think we should go talk to Father about this," she said. "Maybe there's something that we can do."

Johan shrugged. "Can't hurt," he said. "Let's get Julie to come, too."

He kissed Elsa goodbye and followed Leah to Julie's door. He took a deep breath before gently knocking.

"Julie?" he said. "Leah and I are going to talk to Father about Noah. We were hoping you'd come with us."

There was no response. Just a muffled cry from the other side of the door.

"Julie?" Johan called again. He tried to turn the handle, but it was locked. "Julie, open the door!"

"I want to be alone!" Julie cried.

"Julie, I know you're upset, but you can't stay in there forever!" Leah said.

"Just go away!" Julie yelled. "Leave me alone!"

Johan and Leah gaped at each other, speechless against their sister's grief and powerless to help her. Johan shook his head and started for the king's study, motioning for Leah to follow him. They barged in to find their father pacing the floor.

"Father, you can't let them do this!" Johan yelled.

The king sighed. "Johan, I-"

"Noah is like family to us!" Leah said, cutting him off. "You can't let them lock him up!"

"I was just as shocked and upset about this as you were," the king said. "But I don't know that there's anything I can do."

"You're the king!" Johan said. "You must be able to do _something!_"

"I can't let my personal feelings over this get in the way of the _facts!_" the king said, looking out the window instead of at them.

"But Father," Leah begged, "you don't actually believe that Noah-"

"_I don't know!_" the king yelled, frustrated. He got a hold of himself, took a deep breath and sighed. "I don't know," he repeated calmly. "I don't want to believe it but all of the evidence points toward him!"

"Father, we don't have much evidence to begin with!" Johan said.

"He's right," Leah agreed. "We might not be able to prove him innocent right away, but we can't really prove him guilty right away either."

"What exactly do you want me to do?"

"I want a private detective here on this case," Johan concluded. "As soon as possible."

The king sighed as he saw the determination in his son's eyes.

"Please," the prince begged. "For Julie's sake."

"Alright," his father said. "I'll make sure a detective is here by tomorrow morning."

* * *

_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	16. Chapter 15

**A/N: Alright, alright. I know a lot of you weren't happy with how short the last chapter was, but just relax! This chapter is more than 50% longer, so hopefully that can make up for it! But in any case, this chapter has a lot of new information, so pay attention!**

**Disclaimer: You know, I'm pretty sure that if I owned Frozen, I wouldn't be here right now.**

* * *

The next morning, Johan got word from a servant that the detective had arrived. He made his way to the sitting room, where he found Leah talking to a tall, middle-aged man.

"Good morning," the prince said. "You are the detective, I presume?"

"Yes, sir," the man said, shaking his hand. "I am Agent William Olsen."

"Prince Johan," he replied. "I trust you know why you're here?"

"Yes," Agent Olsen replied. "King Magnus told me all about the incident with Mr. Jacobsen. I am very sorry to hear of your friend's betrayal."

Johan mentally groaned. "Thank you, but the entire reason you're here is because I don't believe it was him. I believe that it had to have been someone else, and I need your help to prove that."

The detective seemed a bit taken aback, but he nodded. "Very well, then," he said. "We'll have to start by figuring out more about Mr. Jacobsen and figure out just where he fits into this. Now, Mr. Jacobsen was in the guard, correct?"

"Yes," Johan confirmed.

"All guards had to receive a background check before their enlistment, yes?"

"Yes, sir."

"Are these files kept on record?"

"Yes, sir," Johan replied. "Would you like me to get someone to fetch his files for you?" The detective nodded, and Johan turned to a nearby guard. "Would you get the captain to send Noah Jacobsen's background files here for us, please?" The guard nodded and hurried out of the room. Johan then turned to a servant. "And you, would you bring some tea for Princess Leah, Agent Olsen, and I?"

"Yes, sir," he replied before hurrying out in the same fashion as the guard.

As a dead silence fell over them, the detective took the opportunity to voice his concerns.

"Sir?" he said to the prince. "There is one thing I don't understand. We now know this family from the legends to be the Jacobsen family, and we know that Noah Jacobsen is the cursed member of his generation. We also know that the man that attacked Queen Elsa was indeed a mind manipulator. I guess, what I wonder is, if it were not him, then who?"

"Perhaps the cursed member of an earlier generation?" Leah, who had been quiet until then, suggested.

"But I thought he was an orphan," Agent Olsen said.

"He ran away because his father was abusive," Johan explained. "After his mother died, his father beat him, and Noah fled to the streets, where he was found by Princess Julie and me. We brought him here, and once we got him to tell us what happened to him, our parents sent guards out to find his father, but he had fled. Seeing as he had nowhere to go, we took him in as a servant. But his father was never found, so there's a good chance he's still out there."

Agent Olsen nodded as the servant returned and placed the tea tray on the coffee table in between them. Before long, the guard had also returned with Noah's files, and the three of them began rummaging through the papers.

"We need to compile a list of his family, closest relatives first," the detective instructed.

"Doesn't look like there's much here," Leah said, looking at the papers on the table. "I see the names of his father, mother, and that's it."

"Perhaps we need to research his father," Johan suggested. "After all, he would be a mind manipulator, too, and if we were to find him we would almost certainly get some answers." Johan thought about how carefully he had worded that. He didn't want to outright state that he thought Noah's father was behind all this.

"I'll go into town and try to find out more from the people that used to know the family," Agent Olsen said. "I'll report back as soon as I find out something."

"Wait," Leah said, as he began to walk toward the door. "We should come with you."

"What?" the detective laughed. "That is not necessary, Your Highness. I do this for a living; I can find the information we need myself."

"I have no doubt of that," Johan said, sanding and facing the man. "But we are curious ourselves, and we would like to go with you."

Agent Olsen shrugged. "Alright, then."

.:.^*^.:.

In town, the trio was able to learn more about the family from the local blacksmith who seemed to have known Noah's father quite well. He told them that Gustav Jacobsen was originally from the nearby kingdom of Norup, and had moved to Landvik in his twenties. He met a woman named Margret, whom he married, and eventually had six children with. The blacksmith had noted that they did not seem to be a very happy family, and the children didn't leave the house much without their father. Then, one day, the entire family disappeared. News had spread quickly that Margret had been murdered, Noah had been taken in by the castle, and the rest of the family had fled the kingdom.

"Do you have any idea where they might have gone?" Agent Olsen asked the blacksmith.

"I don't know," the blacksmith replied, "but if I had to wager a guess, it's possible they returned to Norup."

"Did he have other family there?"

"I'm not sure."

The trio glanced at each other, pondering their next move. An idea suddenly hit Johan.

"Perhaps we could find something in their old house that could help us?" he suggested. He turned to the blacksmith. "Do you know who lives in their house now?"

The blacksmith hesitated before answering. "No one," he replied. "It's- it's been abandoned since the Jacobsens left."

.:.^*^.:.

Johan, Leah, and Agent Olsen looked in shock at the empty house in front of them. It reminded Johan of the stories he used to read about ghosts and haunted houses. It was just creepy in the fact that it looked like a normal house, but there was just no one around.

Cautiously, they entered the old house, and they gasped when they found that everything had been left the same from when the Jacobsens were there. All the furniture was still there, there were Christmas decorations up, and there were portraits on the walls covered in cobwebs.

The three immediately took notice of the portrait that hung immediately inside the door. It was a painting of the family as it had been not long before the incident. Gustav and Margret stood in their best clothes with all of their six children: Noah, a boy who seemed to be about four or five, a boy slightly younger than him, and three baby girls who appeared to be triplets.

They split up to explore the house and search for evidence. Leah picture told a story, and the story that this house displayed broke her heart. She walked up the stairs and entered the first room. The walls sported pink and white wallpaper, and standing side-by-side were three baby cribs. On the wall, above each crib, hung small wooden signs with names carved into them, those names being Aurora, Astrid, and Amalie.

In all three cribs, the blankets were thrown and tossed. However, in Amelie's crib, there was a small, fabric doll that looked like it had been thrown, drooled on, and really, really loved. Leah picked up the doll and hugged it to her chest, thinking of what horrible lives these baby girls had probably come to know.

Down the hallway, Johan stood in a room painted dark blue that had one single bed and a set of bunk beds. Unlike the girls' room, there weren't fancy signs showing whose bed was whose. Instead, the names had just been sloppily carved into the bed frames with some sort of a blade. The top bunk was Noah, the bottom bunk was Daniel, and the single bed was Sebastian.

At the foot of Sebastian's bed was a box with toy soldiers and any other toy a three year old might have. Turning to Daniel's bed, Johan's heart skipped a beat when he saw what looked like a French pistol on the side of the pillow. It was only when he picked it up that he realized that it wasn't real, rather it was just a wooden mock-up. But it still worried him that this boy would be interested in such weapons at such a young age.

Finally, Johan climbed up to the top bunk, Noah's bed. He was surprised to find that the sheets were not as tossed as the ones on the other bed. There were no toys to be found on his bed, and the sheets looked a lot less dirty. Johan could see that something was under the pillow, and he pulled out a small, leather-backed book. He opened the front cover, and a small note fell out onto the bed. Johan picked it up and read it:

_1 December, 1770_

_Happy birthday to my dear son Noah! If you ever have any thoughts that you want to remember but don't want anyone to know about, you can write it all in here. Love, Mama._

Turning the page, Johan found what he immediately realized was the only entry in the diary, in sloppy, eight-year-old handwriting:

_23 December, 1770_

_Dear diary,_

_I'm leaving. Tonight._

.:.^*^.:.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Agent Olsen was scoping out the living room, where the Christmas ornaments had fallen off the dead tree and shattered on the floor. He examined the bloody knife on the floor, and realized that it was the knife that had killed Margret Jacobsen. It didn't prove that Noah was innocent in any way, but it did show that Gustav Jacobsen had some explaining to do, if nothing else.

"Hey, guys?" Leah called from somewhere. "I think I found something that might help."

The detective and the prince both found her in a matter of minutes. She was in the study looking at a letter on the desk.

"Take a look at this," she said, turning it so they could read it:

_14 January, 1770_

_My dear brother Gustav,_

_I'm glad to hear that the triplets were delivered safely. My wife recently found out she is pregnant again as well. They think it may be twins, too! That would be a handful with the two children we have already, but we enjoy it, and we are still going to be far from done. We have always said we would have a lot of children, and we plan to! It's good to hear that you intend to go on with your plans in Landvik. Father would be proud. Just remember that if you ever need help, I'm always available. Good luck with everything, and I hope to hear from you again soon._

_Your baby brother,_

_Aksel_

Johan looked at Leah and then back to the paper. "Well," he said, "we know that they like big families, but how does this help us?"

"Well, that doesn't, but chances are when Gustav had to leave Landvik because of Noah, he probably went to seek out help from his brother," Leah said.

"That is possible," Agent Olsen agreed. "But where would they be?"

"The return address on the envelope is from Norup," Leah said.

"But don't you think they might have left when he showed up?" The detective said. "They might have thought that the Landvik authorities would be likely to search for him there."

"No," Johan argued. "Our authorities would not have legally been able to search another kingdom for him. We would have been invading, and that would have started a war."

The detective shrugged and nodded, realizing the prince's point.

"Besides," Johan continued, "even if they did leave, this is all we have to go on right now. It's at least a place to start."

Agent Olsen nodded. "Absolutely," he agreed. "It's exactly where I'm going to start. Tomorrow morning, I will leave for Norup and see what I can find it there. When I return, I will fill you in on what I have learned."

Johan and Leah nodded. They had certainly learned a lot today. Hopefully soon, they would have enough pieces in place to solve this jigsaw puzzle.

* * *

**You know, I was halfway through writing this chapter when I realized that none of the movie characters were in this chapter at all! Haha! Oops! They'll be in the next chapter, I promise! :-]**

_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	17. Chapter 16

**A/N: Alright, I've gotta be honest. I've been a little disappointed with the number of reviews I've been getting. 5 reviews on the last two chapters combined? Come on, you guys can do better than that! Do I really have to beg? But right now, I'm giving you what is by far the longest chapter I've _ever_ written, so hopefully you guys will leave something. This is a pretty emotional chapter, too, so be prepared. But before we get to that, we're gonna start off with some nice Jolsa fluff! (yes, that's my ship name! I didn't want it to be Jelsa, for obvious reasons!)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Frozen, or Disney, or... blah blah blah blah blah...**

* * *

"So, you guys think Noah's uncle might have something to do with this?" Elsa asked as she and Johan lay in her bed that night.

"Maybe," Johan replied. "We don't know anything for sure, but it's our only lead right now."

"Maybe you should go talk to Noah and see what he knows," she suggested.

Johan shrugged. "I guess maybe I _could_, but..."

He trailed off, and Elsa glanced at him as he went silent. "What's wrong?"

He sighed. "I'm just terrified."

She furrowed her brow in confusion. "Of what?"

"That we're wrong about this," he replied. "What if he really is guilty? I don't want to believe that, but there's always that 'what if?'"

"Hey," Elsa said, turning his head with her hand so that he was looking at her. "Whatever happens, it'll be alright in the end."

"So long as we can actually defeat whoever has threatened us," he pointed out. "And what if something happens to you? I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine," she said. "I have icy-snow powers, remember? If anyone tries to mess with me, I am perfectly capable of defending myself."

Johan smiled. "I love you."

She smirked at him. "I know," she replied. She brought her lips to his and kissed him with a burning passion. He kissed her back with equal vigor, and neither of them noticed that their movement was making the headboard hit the wall that separated Elsa's room from Anna's room.

He kissed down her jaw and neck, making her moan in pleasure. She pulled met her lips with his again and opened up to him when she felt his tongue on her bottom lip. He soon trailed kisses up her cheek and repeatedly kissed a spot behind her ear that drove her crazy.

But as she giggled in pleasure, there was a drowsy knock at the door.

"What the _heck_ are you two doing?" Anna's voice rang.

Elsa and Johan stopped and looked at each other in embarrassment.

"Nothing..." Elsa called back like a child who had been caught keeping a big secret.

Normally, Anna would have laughed at her sister's humiliation, but right now she was too tired. "Well could you do the world a favor and keep the volume to a minimum? I hate to interrupt you when you're doing 'nothing,' but it's two in the morning and people are trying to sleep!"

"Sorry, Anna," Elsa said. "Go back to sleep; I'll talk to you in the morning."

The two of them waited until they heard her door close before bursting out laughing.

"As soon as she wakes up in the morning and remembers what just happened, I'm never going to hear the end of it," Elsa said.

"Yeah," Johan agreed. "Good luck!"

As they calmed down Elsa let out a sigh. "It's probably for the best that she interrupted us anyway. We wouldn't want to get too carried away."

"Elsa," Johan said, pushing a lock of blond hair out of her face. "You know I would never do that to you. We would have stopped before we went too far."

Elsa smiled. "Good," she said. "I guess we should go to sleep."

"Yeah," he agreed, settling himself under the covers. She pecked his lips one more time before making herself more comfortable on the pillows.

"Goodnight," she said.

"Sweet dreams," he replied.

And before long, sweet dreams it was.

.:.^*^.:.

The next day passed in a blur for Johan. He thought about taking Elsa's advice and going to talk to Noah, but he was kind of afraid to. He felt that Noah had every right to be angry with him. He let the guards throw him in the dungeons even though he was his best friend. His decision to do that went against his personal feelings, though. He hadn't had much of a choice.

He pushed his thoughts of his friendship to the side and thought about what reason he would have to go down there. He had no idea how much Noah knew about this plot, or if he would actually reveal anything. All in all, it might not help to go talk to him... But, then again, it might not hurt...

About midday, Johan made up his mind that he would go talk to him. After lunch, he donned his cloak and made his way down to the cold, dark dungeons. The guard at the entrance bowed to the prince.

"How may I help you, Your Highness?" he asked.

"I would like to see Noah Jacobsen, please," Johan replied.

The guard nodded and led him down the long hallway. He opened a door on the right side, and Johan saw his friend sitting on the floor of the cell, facing away from him. He approached the iron bars that separated them, and tried to get a better look at him in the faint light from the barred window.

"I would like to talk to him alone please," Johan said to the guard, who looked at him with concern.

"Are you sure, sir?"

"Leave us," the prince instructed.

The guard nodded respectfully and closed the door behind him. Johan didn't say anything at first, and neither did Noah. He was aware of the prince's presence, but he simply waited for him to say something.

Johan took a step closer to the bars and took a deep breath. "Noah?" he said.

The former guard sighed. "Hey, Johan," he said without looking at him.

The prince stuttered as he tried to speak. "I'm sorry I... had to-"

"No, I'm sorry," Noah interrupted. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. I'm sorry you had to find out this way. And I'm sorry you have to deal with all this chaos."

Johan's words caught in his throat. He swallowed before he spoke again. "Can I ask why you didn't tell anyone before?"

Noah looked at him over his shoulder, allowing the prince to get his first good look at him. His eyes were bloodshot, he had gotten thinner, and he was starting to need a shave.

"Because," he responded, "I was afraid I'd end up sitting exactly where I'm sitting right now."

"What do you mean?" Johan asked, dragging over the chair by the wall and sitting on it.

Noah turned himself around so he was sitting facing the prince. "Think about the legends," he said. "They all tell stories of mind manipulators who used their abilities for their gain in evil ways. And I knew that even at the age I was, people would see me as a monster. I didn't want to be thrown out of the castle. You guys were my only friends, and I had nowhere else to go."

Johan waited to see if Noah was going to continue before he asked what was on his mind. He didn't though. "How come you didn't tell anyone after Queen Elsa was attacked?"

"Again, because I would have ended up here," Noah replied. "I knew everyone would think it was me on the beach that night."

"Was it you?" Johan dared to ask.

"No," Noah replied, but he didn't elaborate.

"Then who was it?" Johan said.

Noah looked up at him. "You should know the answer to that by now."

Johan sighed. "If you would have just told us that then, you might now be here right now."

"Yes I would," Noah said. "Whether or not I was the one on the beach that night is irrelevant. There's still nothing to say I'm innocent."

Johan raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you saying you're _not innocent?_"

"_No_," he replied. "I know that you'd believe me if I were to say that, but that doesn't mean everybody else would."

"I don't understand what you're trying to say," Johan said.

"All I'm saying is that anything I would tell you right now would be irrelevant without any proof. I could tell you that I'm innocent. It wouldn't prove anything, though."

Johan sighed. Neither of them said anything for a few moments until Johan decided to speak again.

"Well you know," he said, "we actually did start conducting a case."

Noah looked up at him again. "What do you mean?"

"We got a detective to try to help get to the bottom of everything."

"Really?" Noah said, intrigued. "Have you... found out anything?"

"Well, we searched your old house yesterday," Johan said.

Noah furrowed his brow. "Nobody lives there now?" Johan shook his head. "Fourteen years and nobody _ever_ bought that house?"

"The townspeople say no one wants to live there because of everything that's happened there."

"So it's been abandoned all this time?"

"Yep," Johan said. "Everything had just been left exactly how it was when your family left. It felt like we were stepping into a time portal and going back to that day. It was really kind of creepy!"

"I'll bet," Noah chuckled.

"I saw your room," Johan continued. "I found your diary under your pillow."

"You mean the one I got from my mother on my eighth birthday and only wrote in once?" Noah said.

"Yeah," Johan replied, chuckling.

Noah smiled sadly. "I just never got to writing in it before that day. I found it there before I left and knew I'd have to leave it behind, so I figured it would be a good way to make sure that night was on record."

"I'm sure it would have been on record anyway," Johan said.

"Yeah, but I also wasn't sure when I left whether I would live or die. The (last) thing I expected was for you and Julie to find me and bring me back to the castle."

Johan chuckled before his smile slowly faded away. "And you know," he said, "I was curious as to why... on your brother Daniels pillow... there was-"

"Let me guess," Noah interrupted. "A wooden carving of a gun?"

Johan nodded.

"Daniel had this thing about guns," Noah explained. "He always wanted a French flintlock pistol, and he kept asking our father to get him one. He told him that he would someday."

"How old was your brother then?" Johan asked.

"Almost six."

"Well, how did he even find out about this pistol? Even now, fourteen years later, most children around here, and even some adults, don't even know what a gun is!"

"Our father tried to raise all of us to be like him: selfish, and cruel, and having little value for the lives of others. He would always encourage violence as the only way to get what you want in the world. He introduced us to all kinds of ways to hurt other people. I always hated when he tried to force me to use my power in cruel ways against my brothers to practice. I would always go to my mother for comfort, and she was the one that kept me from believing all the things my father told us. I only wish I had been able to save her."

Noah let a single tear fall down his face. He looked up at Johan, who tried to keep a straight face. Johan knew that as the prince, he had to.

Noah sighed. "But what am I rambling about? You don't have to listen to me. For all you know, everything I've told you could be a lie."

"Now, you know I don't believe that," Johan said.

"_You_ might not, but the _crown prince_ knows that I'm still guilty until proven innocent," Noah said. "I know that this goes far beyond being personal."

Johan didn't say anything as he stared at his friend. He couldn't help but feel that Noah felt himself to be guilty of _something_, but he didn't know what.

Noah sighed. "What else did you find?" he asked. "I'm sure that's not all you came down here to ask me about."

Johan swallowed. "Well," he said, "we think that when your father left he may have gone to seek help from his brother in Norup."

Noah looked up at him. "My Uncle Aksel?"

"Yeah," Johan replied. "Do you think that's where he went?"

Noah shrugged. "Well, it's _possible!_ I don't know anything about his whereabouts for sure."

"Well, we still don't know exactly what he's planning," Johan said. "We don't know who exactly his accomplices are or how to find them."

Noah didn't say anything as a pensive look crossed over his face. He looked down at the gravel beneath him before forcing himself to meet the prince's eyes again.

"Noah," Johan said, "do you know anything about his plans or his accomplices?"

Noah hesitated as he thought for a moment. He began to open his mouth to say something. But then suddenly he stopped. His eyes grew wide as he broke eye contact with Johan. He stared into space in front of him and his breathing became heavy. He propped his elbows on his knees and held his head tightly in his hands. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to hide his pained expression.

Johan stared at him in confusion and concern. "Noah?"

Noah's eyes suddenly burst, and the expression on his face turned to one of panic. His breathing slowed, but he kept staring at the floor in front of him.

"Noah?" Johan repeated.

His head jerked up at the sound of Johan saying his name, and he looked as though he had momentarily forgotten where he was. He stared at him for a moment as he calmed himself down.

"Sorry," he said.

Johan furrowed his brow. "What was that?"

"Nothing!" Noah quickly responded. "I, um... just had a bit of a... panic attack. That's all. I just... relived some... bad memories."

Johan raised an eyebrow at him. "Noah, are you okay?"

Noah hesitated for just a moment before nodding vigorously. "Yeah, I'm fine," he lied.

Johan stared at him for a moment. "What do you know, Noah?"

Noah breathed slowly and heavily, and he looked away from Johan when he finally answered. "I don't know anything."

"Are you sure?" Johan said.

Noah nodded, still not meeting Johan's gaze. "Yes," he whispered.

Johan stared him down. Noah was clearly hiding something, and Johan wasn't buying that he didn't know anything _at all_. He opened his mouth to protest, but he realized that there was no point in trying to force him to talk. If he wasn't going to talk on his own, he wasn't going to talk.

Reluctantly, Johan stood from his chair and started to walk toward the door. He had his hand on the doorknob when he heard Noah call him.

"Johan?"

The prince turned around to see Noah standing on his knees and holding on to the iron bars. His expression seemed to be pleading for something.

"Yes?" he replied.

"Make sure Julie stays safe," Noah said. "Please. I couldn't live with myself if something happened to her."

Johan stared at him for a moment before nodding. Noah gave him a small, grateful smile before the prince exited the room. As soon as he was gone, Noah crawled back over to the other side of the cell and leaned on the wall. He put his face in his hands and sighed before looking up at the ceiling and shaking his head.

"Lord, have mercy on my soul."

.:.^*^.:.

"Oh, Julie," Anna said as she sat with the younger girl the next evening after dinner. "I wish you would just let all of us help you."

"There's nothing you guys can do," Julie replied, staring up at the ceiling as she lay on her bed. "You can't possibly change things back to the way they were."

"No, but we want to help you feel better, though," Anna said. "You've hardly left this room in three days. At this point, the only thing that's keeping you from feeling better is yourself."

"You don't understand, Anna," Julie said, sitting up. "I love him, and I thought he loved me, but now I don't know."

She buried her face into her knees as she tried to calm herself down. Anna sighed. She had been the only one Julie had let in to talk to her in the last few days. Anna knew that Julie had only let her in because she knew that she wouldn't try to push her too hard to come out. Anna certainly didn't want to push her, but she couldn't just let her wallow in self-pity.

"Julie, I know you've been depressed over this, but think about everyone else. You have a lot of people here that love you, and miss you, and want to help you."

"Yeah, they want to help me forget! They want me to cast aside my feelings for him so that I can stop being sad about it. But I don't want to forget! I don't care if he really has done some bad things! I love him, and I want him back!"

She started crying into her skirt, and Anna, at a loss for words, simply sighed and rubbed her back to try to help calm her down. After a few minutes, Julie had calmed down, but Anna still couldn't find something to say that would make her feel better.

_I'm doing terrible at this,_ she thought.

Just then there was a knock at the door. Julie looked up from her knees but didn't say anything. Anna decided to answer for her.

"Who is it?"

"It's Elsa," the queen's voice said. "Can I come in?"

Anna looked at Julie, who shook her head. The older princess crossed her arms and gave her a scolding look. Julie scoffed and turned herself around so she was facing her headboard.

Anna stood up and opened the door. Elsa smiled sadly at her and then turned her gaze to Julie.

"Is she doing okay?" she whispered.

Anna glanced over her shoulder and sighed as she looked back at her sister. "She's really depressed," she whispered back. "I've been trying to talk to her but she won't listen."

"Why don't you leave me to talk to her for a little while," Elsa said. "I might be able to get through to her."

Anna nodded and walked past her out the door. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Elsa replied as she shut the door behind her. Slowly, she walked over to the girl's bed and cleared her throat to get her attention.

Julie sighed. "My brother sent you to talk to me, didn't he?"

"No, actually, I came myself to talk to you," Elsa replied.

"I don't want to talk about it. I just want to be alone," Julie said.

"Well, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to talk about it sooner or later, so we might as well get it over with."

Julie huffed and didn't say anything as Elsa sat next to her and put her hand on her back. Elsa waited a minute before saying anything else.

"Julie, why have you been keeping yourself in here?" the queen said.

"Because I want to be alone!"

"Why do you want to be alone?"

"Because I'm upset about Noah!"

"Do you think that shutting everyone else out will make you feel better?"

"I-" Julie held her breath as she tried to come up with an answer. When she could think of none, she groaned in defeat. "Look, it doesn't matter whether it makes me feel _better_, but at least being alone keeps me from feeling _worse!_"

"How does it keep you from feeling worse?" Elsa said.

"Because I don't have to deal with everyone trying to make me feel better!"

"Do you not want to feel better?"

"Nothing that any of you guys say would help me!"

"But maybe if you would just listen-"

"No, you listen!" Julie yelled, turning around to face her. "You guys all want me to forget about Noah and pretend that I don't still have feelings for him! But I do! I love him, and I want to be with him, or may the world be done with me!"

"Julie!" Elsa yelled.

Julie recoiled as she realized what she had just said. She turned her body over so she was lying on her stomach with her feet by her pillows. She cried into her arms as Elsa rubbed her back to comfort her.

"I'm sorry I yelled," Elsa said. "But don't you dare ever say anything like that!"

Julie nodded and sniffed as she sat herself up so she was sitting facing the queen.

"You're not going to tell anyone I said that, are you?" Julie asked. "I don't want them to start panicking over me."

Elsa sighed. "Only if you can promise me you would _never_ do that to yourself."

Julie nodded. "I promise," she said between sobs.

"Okay," Elsa said, embracing the younger girl. Julie sobbed into Elsa's chest as Elsa rubbed circles in her back.

"I'm sorry," Julie cried. "I didn't mean it. I just..."

"Shh," Elsa said to comfort her. She placed a kiss on the top of Julie's head and held her as close as she could. "It's alright. I'm not angry with you. I'm just disappointed that you would even think that. And you don't know how terrified it made me, too."

"I don't know what came over me," Julie said.

"It's because you were focusing on all the bad things rather than the good things," Elsa said. "Believe me, I understand what you're going through better than you think."

Julie looked up at her. "You do?"

"Yes," Elsa replied. "When I had to hide my powers when I was younger, I had to shut people out for a long time because my parents thought it was the only way to keep everyone safe until I learned how to control them. And I believed that, too. But the thing is, and I realized this later, that shutting myself out from the world was the worst thing I could have possibly done if I wanted to be able to control them. So when I couldn't figure out how to control them no matter what I did, I really started to get depressed. I thought I would never be able to control the curse. If I were to say that thoughts of ending it right then and there never crossed my mind, I'd be lying because they did, on more than one occasion. But you know what kept me from doing it?"

"What?" Julie asked.

"I remembered that I had people who loved me, and cared about me, and I could never do that to them. And I eventually realized how much pain I had caused people by shutting them out, especially Anna. And Julie, you have people who love you, and care about you, and don't want to see you this upset. We're not asking you to forget about Noah. We're asking you to remember all the good things in your life. Life can throw you all sorts of painful things, but you need to move past them and make the best of whatever life throws at you."

Julie smiled at her and nodded. "Thank you, Elsa," she said. "You're right, and I needed to hear that."

Elsa smiled in return. "You're welcome, sweetheart," she said. "Now, I'll make you a deal. If I leave you here for tonight, will you come down and meet everyone for breakfast tomorrow?"

Julie nodded. "Sure."

"Alright," Elsa said, standing up. "I'll see you in the morning, okay?"

"Okay," Julie said as Elsa walked toward the door. "And, Elsa?"

Elsa turned around. "Yes?"

"For the record, I don't think your powers are a curse."

Elsa smiled. "Well I wish someone could have told me that thirteen years ago, but thank you."

* * *

**Now can you guys push that review button right there?... Pretty please?... It's right there beneath this message, waiting just for you!...**

_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	18. Chapter 17

**A/N: Now that's the kind of review action I like to see! Thank you guys; I feel so much better now! Keep it up! ****:-D And now, I present to you, chapter 17! If you think you've seen the end of plot twists, think again! You ain't seen nothin' yet!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen. What can I say? I'm just a regular girl!**

* * *

Julie kept her promise to Elsa the next morning and showed up to breakfast. Everyone was so glad to see her, and Johan felt he could not thank Elsa enough for talking some sense into her. Julie was still a little bit quieter than before everything happened, but just being able to see a smile on her face again made everyone happy.

As they finished up their meals, their blissful conversation was cut short as a servant approached their table.

"Prince Johan, Princess Leah, there is as Agent William Olsen here to see you," he said.

"Wonderful," Leah said. "Have someone escort him to the sitting room and we'll meet him there."

The servant nodded and exited as Johan and Leah stood up from their seats.

"Sorry, guys. We have to go solve a mystery," Johan said. "Anyone want to tag along?"

"I will," Elsa said, standing up. She turned her gaze to Julie. "Do you maybe want to come?" she asked hesitantly.

"Oh, um, I don't think so," Julie replied nervously. "I don't think I'm strong enough for that yet."

"Fair enough," Elsa laughed.

"That's okay! We'll find something to do!" Anna said, throwing her arm around Julie's shoulder.

Elsa smiled before following Johan and Leah out of the room. It didn't take long for them to get to the sitting room, where Agent Olsen was already waiting for them.

"Agent Olsen, it's wonderful to see you again," Leah said, shaking the man's hand.

"Good morning, Princess Leah," he replied. He turned to Johan and shook his hand. "Hello, Prince Johan." He turned to Elsa. "And whom else do I have the pleasure of addressing?"

Elsa smiled. "Queen Elsa of Arendelle."

"Oh," the man said, a bit surprised. He quickly bowed. "How do you do, Your Majesty?"

"Very well, thank you," Elsa replied.

"I trust your travels were safe?" Leah said as she sat down on the couch.

"They were indeed, Your Highness," the detective replied. "And I have come up with some interesting new knowledge of our clever friends, the Jacobsens."

"Well, that's wonderful," Johan said as he and Elsa sat next to Leah. The agent sat across from them and pulled out his notebook.

"Now then, let's get down to business" he said as he found the page in his notebook he was looking for. "First of all, I found that our suspicions were correct. Gustav Jacobsen did in fact go to Norup to seek help from his brother, and he bought a large house directly next door to them. Aksel introduced him to a woman he knew who Gustav soon married. Rumor has it they had ten children together."

"In addition to the five they already had to take care of!?" Leah exclaimed.

"It would seem so," the detective replied. "His brother also had ten children of his own."

"How could they handle all those children? I couldn't even imagine!" Elsa exclaimed.

"I know," Leah agreed. "I mean, two or three? Sure! But fifte-"

"Girls! Girls! Come on! Focus!" Johan exclaimed.

"Sorry," Elsa said. "Go on."

"Well, about five years ago, Gustav's brother, wife, and sister-in-law were all killed in a carriage accident," Agent Olsen continued. "Gustav took custody of his brother's children, and then a few months ago, he and all of the children disappeared."

"Oh, history!" Johan muttered to himself. "Always repeating yourself!"

"Do we have any leads as to where they went?" Leah asked.

"No," the detective replied. "The agent in Norup who investigated the disappearance had found no leads when he searched the house. And the house has since been sold to other people."

"Alright, well do you know of anyone who might be working with him?" Johan asked. "Any accomplices?"

"Besides possibly his son, Noah? No."

"Wait a minute," Leah interrupted. "I don't understand. How can this guy pull off this heist and lead this conspiracy when he's in custody of twenty-five children under the age of twenty?"

"Maybe he gets some of his accomplices to take care of the children while he's working?" Elsa suggested.

"No," Johan said, as it suddenly dawned on him. "I think the children _are_ the accomplices!"

"That's possible," Agent Olsen chimed in. "That could possibly be why he had so many children. He wouldn't have to bribe them or pay them to help him. He just had to raise them to think it was their responsibility."

"That is absolutely sick!" Elsa exclaimed. "To do that to his own children!"

"Well, that could prove why Noah ran away!" Johan said. "He didn't want to be his father's weapon!"

"I hate to ruin your party, Prince Johan, but there is still the possibility that he was sent here by his father to find out more about the castle and eventually help him get in," Agent Olsen pointed out.

Johan slumped on the couch in defeat. "Why does everything have to be so complicated?" he mumbled, shaking his head.

"Well, never mind that," Leah said. "We need to keep in mind that if they're after the royal family, they are eventually going to attack! We need to figure out when that might be!"

"Well what would be the easiest time for them to get into the castle undetected?" the detective asked.

"Probably during a special event," Leah said. "Some type of celebration where everyone's here and a couple of kids would just blend into the crowd-"

"The Midwinter's Ball!" Johan cut in. "It's next week!"

"Next week? That won't give us enough time to figure out their plan of attack!" Elsa said.

"Your right," Johan agreed. "If Leah and I get our father to cancel the ball, it would buy us enough time to figure out more so that we'll be ready to capture them when they do attack!"

"Would father _agree_ to canceling the ball?" Leah asked. "The Annual Midwinter's Ball has never been cancelled since the great snowstorm of 1699."

"He wouldn't want to put lives at stake," Johan said. "He'll agree to it I'm sure. We'll go to the council meeting tomorrow and bring it up."

"Alright," Leah agreed. She looked to the detective. "So, in the meantime, is there anything left to _do?_"

"Well I've run out of leads, Your Highness. There's no way right now for me to figure out anything."

"Perhaps we should discuss this at a later date, then?" Johan suggested.

"That would probably be best," Agent Olsen replied. "I will keep my eyes open for anything I might see that could help us."

"Thank you, Agent Olsen," Johan said, standing and leading the man to the door. "We will be forever indebted to you for your services. I will find someone to escort you out, and then," he said, turning to the girls, "perhaps I'll bring back some tea for you ladies."

The girls nodded as he led the detective out. They sat there in silence for a few minutes before Leah finally spoke up.

"Can you believe all this?" she said. "This is turning out to be far more complicated than I thought it would be."

"I know," Elsa replied. "This is crazy. An evil family with a curse? What's next?"

"Right?" Leah agreed. They laughed until they heard footsteps run past the door before skidding to a stop and turning around. Kristoff looked in, out of breath.

"Elsa!" he said, panting.

"Kristoff, what's wrong?" Elsa asked as she and Leah stood.

The mountain man gasped as he caught his breath. "I just overheard the guards panicking down stairs!" he said. "Noah's escaped!"

"What!?" Elsa exclaimed. "What do you mean he's escaped!?"

"What do you think I mean!?" Kristoff yelled. "He got out!"

"Why would he do that?" Leah exclaimed. "Is he _trying_ to prove himself guilty of something?"

"How did he get out?" Elsa asked.

"I don't know!" Kristoff replied.

"Was anyone hurt?"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

Just then Johan came walking in with a tray in his hands. "Hello, Kristoff. Elsa, I brought lavender tea. I know that's your favorite." He looked up after placing the tray on the table and noticed the bewildered expressions on their faces. "What?"

"Uh, Johan, we have a bit of a problem," Elsa said.

"Noah's escaped," Kristoff repeated.

Johan looked at the ice man in panic. "What!? What do you mean he's escaped!?"

"_What do you think he means!?_" Elsa and Leah yelled simultaneously.

"What exactly happened?" he said, turning to Elsa.

"We don't know," Elsa replied.

Just then, Captain Gunnarson came running in. "Your Highnesses!"

"Captain, what happened?" Johan asked.

"Mr. Jacobsen has escaped!"

"_I got that part!_ I meant how!"

"These kids just came in with crossbows and shot at every guard in their way! As soon as they got him out, they all ran off and disappeared!"

"Were there any casualties?" Leah asked.

"There are many guards with injuries, but so far nothing has been fatal," the captain said.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Leah exclaimed, when all of a sudden her husband burst into the room.

"Leah!" Isak said. "I heard what happened! Are you alright? Is everyone alright?"

"I'm fine, Isak. We're all fine," Leah responded.

"What are we going to do?" Elsa exclaimed.

"What do you think we're going to do?" Johan replied. "We're gonna find them all, bring them back here, and find out what that no good bastard-"

"Enough!" came a voice from the doorway. They all looked to see King Magnus standing there. "All of you! Calm down! Captain, come with me. The rest of you, I want you all to stay in the castle and be on guard! Understand?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," the room chorused.

After the king and the captain left, everyone found themselves sitting on the sofas in silence. All of them were stunned by this sudden turn of events.

Kristoff chuckled. "Who gets to tell Julie?"

"Not it!" Leah said, raising her hand. They all chuckled at the childlike gesture.

"I'll do it," Johan said. "That's not gonna be fun."

All of a sudden, Anna walked in, still blissfully unaware of everything that had happened.

"Hey, everyone!" she said. "How come you're all in here? Is this some secret get-together I should know about?"

"Anna, do you know where Julie is?" Johan asked, standing up.

"She went I her room to get dressed so we could go into town," Anna said. Then she finally noticed their panicked expressions. "Wait, what happened?"

"Noah's escaped!" Kristoff said.

"What!? What do you mean he's escaped!?"

"_WHAT DO YOU THINK HE MEANS!?_" the rest of the room yelled.

"How are you going to tell her?" she asked Johan.

"I don't know. I'm making this up as I go," he said, walking past her and out the door. He walked up the stairs and made his way to her bedroom.

When he reached her door he hesitated. Taking a deep breath, he softly knocked on her door.

"Julie?"

No answer.

"Julie, I need to talk to you."

Still nothing.

Johan opened the door to find that the room was empty.

"Julie?" he called, looking around the room. "Are you in here?"

Still no answer.

"Hmm," he said to himself. "I guess she already went to go find Anna."

He began to walk out, but then he noticed a scrap of paper on the bed. He picked it up and read it. As the words sunk in, he could feel his heart stop.

_If you ever wish to see the princess alive again, you will see to it that the Midwinter's Ball is not cancelled._

_-Jacobsen_

.:.^*^.:.

_Earlier..._

Julie stood in front of her mirror, putting her makeup on. It felt good to be talking with everyone again, and when Anna had suggested that they spend a day on the town, Julie knew that was exactly what she needed.

Suddenly, she heard something outside on her balcony. As she walked over to see what it was, she noticed she could hear someone breathing. Cautiously, she walked over to the open door and slowly pulled back the shades.

She gasped when she saw the boy that was leaning against the railing. He looked just like him. Only, it wasn't him. This boy was a bit younger than him. The face and the hair looked very similar, but the eyes were different. Instead of his soft, comforting hazel eyes, this boy's eyes were a piercing, bright blue.

"Well, well. What have we here?" the boy said, throwing her a wicked smile.

Julie gulped as she backed away from him slowly. He, in turn, moved toward her at a similar rate to keep the distance between them from getting larger.

"Look like your boyfriend, don't I?" he said.

"You know Noah?" Julie said, trying to hide the fear in her voice.

"In fact, I do," he replied, as he followed her into the room. "I actually haven't seen him in a long time. But I'm meeting up with him soon. I can take you to him. You can finally see him again, and you two can run away and be together. Forever."

For a split second, Julie was almost tempted by this offer. But she was smart, and she knew a liar when she saw one.

"I- no! You're lying! Get out of here before I call the guards!"

She turned around and walked quickly toward the door.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the boy said.

"Oh yeah?" Julie said, her voice wavering. "Why not?"

As she placed her hand on the doorknob, she heard a soft click behind her. That click seemed to echo through her ears as time slowed down with her heartbeat.

"Unless you'd like them to find you lying limp on the ground," he replied.

Julie's eyes went wide. Slowly, she turned around to face him, and she gasped at what she saw.

In his hand was a French flintlock pistol.

* * *

** Dun dun dun!**

_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	19. Chapter 18

**A/N: Hello all! I hope you're ready for a tense chapter 'cause there's a lot to be tense about! I tried to focus a bit on Leah in this chapter, because I needed to show some girl power in this story, and not to mention, of the three siblings in that family, she has by far gotten the least attention so I decided to give her a moment in the spotlight. so you guys enjoy this chapter... while I go write the next one. Yes, that is how behind I am. And I'm worried because I have mini band camp this week and then band camp the week after. I should still be able to update, but that's only provided I have the chapters written on time. So if we end up getting to a point where I can't update on time, just bear with me! I'll do the best that I can! :-]**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Frozen. Do you?**

* * *

"We have to cancel the ball!" the prime minister argued.

"But if we cancel the ball, they'll just kill her on the spot!" Johan yelled.

As soon as Johan had shown the note to his father, the king called and emergency council meeting to discuss what to do. Now, they sat at the long table in the council chamber. King Magnus sat at the head of the table. Johan sat to his right. Leah and Isak sat to his left.

The chancellor stood up. "Your Majesty, Your Highnesses, even if we were to cancel the ball, there is a possibility they would not kill the princess," he said. "It may have been merely a bluff."

"It also may not have," Leah pointed out. "They essentially took her for _ransom_. If we were to counter their demands, they would have no reason to keep her alive any longer!"

"Enough!" King Magnus said, frustrated. He sighed as he rubbed his temples. "Let's weigh the positive and negative outcomes of our options. Minister?"

The prime minister stood up. "If we cancel the ball, there is a likelihood that Princess Julie will be killed, we will not be any closer to finding the whereabouts of our enemies, and these radicals will still try to come after the rest of us sooner or later. On the other hand, if we were to cancel the ball, we would be protecting the innocent lives of the citizens, and it would buy us more time to find the criminals."

"Do you think these positives outweigh the negatives?" the king asked.

"Well, Your Majesty, losing Princess Julie would be absolutely devastating, but we can't put all of those innocent lives at stake for one seventeen-year-old girl."

"You can't say that about the princess!" Johan yelled.

"Calm down, Johan," the king said to his son. "We are merely discussing what's at stake here. We have not decided anything yet."

Johan let out an irritated sigh as he fell back into his chair. He couldn't believe his father wouldn't address the minister's blatant disrespect toward his daughter.

"Now," the minister continued, "if we were to keep the ball on, it is true that the princess's life would be spared. But the problem is, they are after _all_ of the royal family. Chances are, she could eventually be killed anyway. Even if they hadn't kidnapped her, she would still be most likely to be shot down first because as an underage girl, she would be an easy target."

Johan scoffed at the remark, and began muttering to himself under his breath. "Easy target, my-"

"Johan!" his father scolded. The prince simply shook his head at his father as the minister continued.

"What it really comes down to is how many lives we can manage to spare, at least for the time being," he said. "If we keep the ball on, we would be knowingly placing these innocent lives in the path of danger. As the leaders of this country, it is our duty to protect the lives of our citizens at all costs."

The king sighed. "I wish I didn't have to say this, but I agree."

"What!?" Leah yelled.

"How could you do that to your own daughter?" Johan demanded.

"I can't risk putting the citizens' lives in danger!" King Magnus said. "What would they think of me?"

"Nothing says that we'd be completely throwing them to the wolves by keeping the ball on!" Leah argued. "We'd have plenty of security, guards at every door, and just think of this: what do you think the citizens would think if it got out- and it _will_- that you let your own daughter die!?"

The king was silenced by these words. He looked back and forth between his daughter and son, and he sighed in defeat under their angry glares.

Johan turned to look at the rest of the table, and stood up to face the council members. "It is true that as rulers, we must protect the lives of the citizens. Make no mistake that we intend to do that. But as citizens, in turn, they also have a responsibility to protect their princess at all costs. They know that. We shall warn the citizens of this threat, and should they not wish to risk their own lives by coming to the ball, then so be it. It's their choice. But knowing the townspeople as well as I do, I can tell you that they are strong and brave. They would do anything to protect the royal family. And all of you, need I remind you, are citizens of this country as well. It is your duty to protect your princess and make sure she is safe. I say we do this for her! Long live Princess Julie!"

Leah stood up. "Long live Princess Julie!"

"Long live Princess Julie!" Isak joined in.

Then, the council members, one by one, began to stand and join the chant. Soon, most of the table was standing and chanting.

"Enough!" King Magnus yelled. Everyone instantly became silent, and the council members quickly sat down. "May we decide on this in an orderly fashion, please?"

The council nodded, and Johan, Leah, and Isak sat back down.

"Let us decide," the king said. "All in favor of canceling the ball?"

The prime minister raised his hand, slowly followed by two or three others. Johan glared at him, and the minister brushed it off.

King Magnus took a deep breath. "All in favor of keeping the ball on?" he said quietly.

For moment, no one moved. Then someone raised their hand. Followed by another. And another. And everyone else who hadn't raised their hand yet.

Johan smiled and fell back into his chair as he sighed in relief. For a moment there, he had almost been worried.

The king nodded. "We keep the ball on," he said. "In the meantime, we will put notices around the town about these threats, issue warrants for the arrests of anyone involved, and have guards out looking for Princess Julie. This meeting is now adjourned."

Johan stood from his chair, genuinely proud of himself. He looked over at Leah, who beamed at him to show that she was also proud of him. But his father stopped him before he could walk out.

"Johan, I'd like to speak with you in my study," he said. "You too, Leah."

The siblings glanced at each other, afraid what this was about. Although, both of them had a pretty good idea of what it was about as they followed their father to his study.

They sat down in the chairs in front of the desk as the king sat behind it. He sighed as he looked between the two.

"I know you two meant well in there," he said, "but it was not your place to speak out."

Johan and Leah groaned, rolling their eyes.

"I mean it!" the king scolded. "You were insulting the prime minister by interrupting to speak against what he was saying."

"For good reason!" Johan said.

"What were we supposed to do?" Leah yelled. "Sit there and let them cancel the ball?"

"Leah, all I'm saying is that you two need to learn not to speak out of turn, or next time there could be consequences," the king said.

"You can't punish me for speaking out of turn!" Leah said. "I'm a twenty-four-year-old married woman. I'm not a child, and neither is he!"

"And honestly, father, if we hadn't said anything, who would have stopped them from canceling the ball?" Johan pointed out.

"That's beside the point!" King Magnus yelled. "And it's not like their reasoning for canceling it was illogical! We can't just focus on saving the life of one specific individual. We need to try to save as many lives as possible."

"But I still can't believe you would even _consider_ doing that to your own daughter!" Leah yelled.

"I didn't mean to!" the king said, standing up to pace the room. "The reasoning of the council members just made me think twice."

He stopped in front of the window and closed his eyes to try to calm himself down. For several minutes, none of them said anything. Then, Leah broke the silence.

"You wouldn't have thought twice if it was one of us."

The king opened his eyes and turned around to face his children. "Of course not!" he said with concern evident in his voice. "I would never let that happen to you."

"But you would let it happen to Julie?" Leah said. But it was more of a statement then a question.

King Magnus narrowed his eyes at his daughter. "What are you saying?"

She paused a moment to glare at her father. "You'd be more willing to give up Julie than Johan or me because we're higher in your line of succession," she said.

The king's eyes went wide in shock. "Leah, I would never-"

"Say what you will," she interrupted, "but the fact still remains that you prefer us! You may not even realize it yourself, but in your mind, we're the important ones and she's just the spare."

King Magnus stood there aghast. He glanced at Johan, who was just as shocked by Leah's outburst but said nothing against it.

Leah shook her head as she stood up. "We may be higher in your line of succession, but she's your daughter too, and she deserves no less care and respect!"

Her father, at a loss for words, could only stare after her as she turned on her heel and walked toward the door. He looked back to Johan, who looked between his sister and his father before sighing and following Leah out, closing the door behind him.

The king shakily made his way back to his desk and sat down in a stupor. He simply stared at the space in front of him for a few moments before burying his face in his hands.

_What have I done?_

.:.^*^.:.

"Leah, are you okay?" Johan asked as he caught up with his sister.

"Yeah, I'm alright," she replied sadly. She was already feeling the guilt sink in on her for yelling at her father. She hadn't really meant to yell; she was just so frustrated and upset over losing Julie.

Johan noticed how quickly her anger had turned to regret. "Do you really think the things that you said in there?"

Leah sighed. "I don't know," she said. "I'm just so... frustrated! With _everything!_"

He put a hand on her shoulder. "You just got mad in the heat of the moment, didn't you?"

Leah nodded as she buried her face in her hands. "Oh, Johan," she cried. "I'm just so scared! Our baby sister is missing!"

Johan hugged his older sister as she cried. "It's okay, Leah," he said. "Everyone's scared. But we just have to be strong and try to get through this, okay?"

Leah nodded again, and took deep breaths as she tried to calm herself down. She smiled sadly at him, and he squeezed her shoulder in encouragement.

"I'm gonna go see if they found out more about the breakout," he said. "Why don't you go try to relax?"

"Okay," she said. Johan smiled at her, before turning on his heel and walking in the other direction.

Leah tried to keep herself calm as she walked through the hallway. She walked into the library, where she found Elsa and Anna with books open on their laps. They looked up when they heard her come in. They hadn't really been able to focus on what they were trying to read anyway.

"Hey," Anna said. "How'd it go?"

"They're keeping the ball on," Leah said, sitting in an empty chair.

"Well, that's good," Elsa said, but she could tell that Leah wasn't taking all of this well. "Are you okay?"

Leah nodded. "I'll be fine," she said. "I'm just so mad over everything! The council was almost ready to actually cancel it!"

"Are you serious?" Anna exclaimed, shocked.

"Yeah," Leah said. "And Father was almost ready to let them! I don't know what would have happened if Johan and I hadn't been there to convince them otherwise."

"Do you think he really would have agreed?" Elsa inquired.

"I don't know," Leah said. "I mean, I understand they had decent points over why it should have been cancelled, like the fact that they wanted to save as many lives as possible, but I still can't believe he actually considered it for a moment."

"Did you talk to him about it?" Anna asked.

"He pulled me and Johan into his study afterward to scold us for 'speaking out of turn' during the meeting, and I kind of snapped on him a little bit," Leah said, sighing. "I guess I shouldn't have said some of the things I said, but-"

"Like what?" Elsa interrupted.

Leah bit her lip. "Well," she said, "I accused him of not caring about Julie enough because she's not as high in the line of succession as Johan or me."

"Ouch!" Anna said. "That had to hurt!"

"Which is why I shouldn't have said it," Leah said. "Now he probably thinks that I think he doesn't care about Julie at all."

"Well, look," Elsa said. "You feel bad about what you said, right?"

"Mm-hmm," Leah said, nodding.

"Then why don't you give it a few hours for both of you to cool down and then go apologize?"

Leah sighed. "Yeah," she said. "You're right. I should. Thanks, Elsa."

"Glad I could help," the queen replied, smiling.

"So anyway," Anna said, desperately trying to change the topic, "if the ball is being kept on, we might as well make the most of it!"

"I take it you're going with Kristoff?" Leah asked.

"Well, considering that we're engaged, that would be appropriate!" Anna said, holding up her diamond ring. "I'm gonna make him wear his Arendellian royal uniform that he wore to the wedding. He's getting dressed up whether he want to or not!"

"What are you going to wear?" Elsa said.

"Julie has a lot if ball gowns that would fit me. I'll wear one of them," Anna replied.

"Wait," Leah interrupted, "you guys didn't bring ball gowns?"

"We weren't supposed to stay this long!" Elsa reminded her. "We were supposed to leave the day after the wedding, but first the snowstorm came through, and then I was attacked, so we've kind of been stuck here." She looked between the two princesses, who were both staring at her, smirking. Her face turned red, and she shrugged as she added, "Not that I've minded."

Anna and Leah laughed at Elsa's embarrassment. Before long, Elsa couldn't keep herself from laughing, too.

"Has Johan actually asked to escort you to the ball?" Leah asked.

"Not yet," Elsa admitted, "but that's probably just because he didn't know whether or not the ball was actually going to happen!"

"True," Anna said. "But if I may ask, what are you going to wear?"

Elsa smirked at her sister. "Don't forget; I'm the Snow Queen, and I can use my powers to make my own dresses," she said. She thought for a moment, and then nodded to herself. "I think I can come up with something."

.:.^*^.:.

Later that night, Leah found herself holding her breath as she stood in front of her father's bedroom door. It was almost midnight, but she had wanted to wait to talk to him in his room rather than in his study. She knew that in his study, she would be talking to him as the king, but in his room, she was talking to him as her father.

Taking a deep breath, she softly knocked on the door.

"Come in," her father called, sounding exhausted.

She slowly opened the door and walked in to see him sitting on his bed.

"Father?" she said nervously.

"Leah," he said, genuinely surprised to see her. "What are you doing here?"

She took a deep breath. "I wanted to... apologize for what I said earlier. It was... wrong of me, and I shouldn't have said it."

"Oh, Leah," her father said, standing and walking over to where she stood. He hugged her in forgiveness, and she gladly hugged him back. "I'm the one who should be apologizing. You were right; I shouldn't have considered letting them cancel the ball for even a split second."

"It's not your fault. They made good points that you, as king, had to take into consideration," Leah said.

"But as a father, my most important job is to protect my children with my life, and that means all of you," he said.

"No hard feelings?" she said.

"Of course not," her father replied, hugging her again.

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**Keep those reviews coming! ;-)**

_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	20. Chapter 19

**A/N: Here's another look at how far behind I am: I literally finished writing this chapter, and then immediately came to post it. What can I say? I'm only human! But hopefully, since we are rapidly approaching the climax of the story, I can whip out the next couple chapters fast! _Hopefully! _I'm making no promises! But anyway, let's not get ahead of ourselves... so to speak. Right now, I give you a lovely chapter with lots of Jolsa fluff! (I love that ship name! It's so fun to say!) :-D**

**Disclaimer: Do you think they would really trust _me _with the rights to Frozen? I wouldn't!**

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A week later, Johan, Kristoff, and Isak were waiting in the hallway outside the ballroom for the girls so they could escort them in. Kristoff and Isak were standing, making quiet conversation. Johan sat on the step, nervously bouncing his knee up and down.

"Why are you so antsy?" Isak said, noticing how tense he was.

Johan shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "I'm just nervous, I guess."

Isak laughed as he sat down next to him and put his arm around his shoulder. "Don't worry," he said. "Every guy had felt that way at one time or another. You should have seen me the first time I escorted Leah to a ball. I was sweating, and pacing back and forth; your father said he thought I was going to wear a hole in the carpet."

Johan chuckled. "I can't even figure out what I'm nervous about," he said.

"I can," Kristoff said. "You're nervous about what kind of impression you'll make. On Elsa, and on everyone else in the room! Believe me, when I first went to a ball with Anna, I was absolutely beside myself. I was worried I'd screw something up and Anna would be upset with me. And I had to worry about what all those people would be saying about a commoner dancing with the princess! Believe me, my friend, you have it easier than I did!"

Johan smiled. Just then, the three girls came in the room together. Isak stood up to meet Leah, who wore a dark red ball gown with medium-length sleeves. Her hair was down and hung by her shoulders elegantly.

Kristoff smiled at Anna, who smiled back. She wore a light green dress with short sleeves and a white trim. She wore her hair in a braided bun very similar to the one she wore at her sister's coronation.

"Do you like the dress?" Anna said. "Leah picked it out for me."

The older princess smiled at the dress. "It's one of Julie's favorites," she said. Anna could see in her eyes how she silently refused to speak of Julie in the past tense.

"It looks beautiful!" Kristoff said, letting Anna take his arm.

Johan, however, had not been able to stop staring at Elsa. She wore a beautiful dark blue dress with long, lacy sleeves that hung off her shoulders. The faint etchings of snowflakes on the draping skirts sparkled when the light hit them, and the dark blue cape that trailed behind her added a queenly feel to the outfit. Her hair hung in elegant curls by her shoulders, and she smiled at her prince as he stood there in awe.

"What do you think?" she said, blushing under his gaze.

Johan took a moment to find the right words. "You look... absolutely beautiful," he said, unable to think of any stronger words.

"Are you guys coming?" Anna called back to them. They were all being announced as they came in, as the king had considered Elsa and her family to be royal guests.

Johan smiled at the queen as he held out his arm. "Shall we?"

She smiled back as she took his arm, and they could hear Leah and Isak being announced as they entered the ballroom.

"Presenting, Her Royal Highness, Princess Leah of Landvik, and her Prince Consort Isak of Landvik."

The guests clapped. Anna looked at Kristoff as he nervously waited for their cue to enter.

"Don't worry. You'll be fine," Anna said as she straightened his jacket. He smiled at her as they began to walk in.

"Her Highness, Princess Anna of Arendelle, with her escort for the night, Sir Kristoff of Arendelle."

There was more clapping as Johan and Elsa glanced at each other. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to see his father, who smiled at them encouragingly. They quickly returned the smile, before making their entrance to the ballroom.

"His Royal Highness, Prince Johan of Landvik, escorting Her Majesty, Queen Elsa of Arendelle."

The crowd clapped for them as they walked in. In fact, they clapped with a little more enthusiasm than they had for the others. Elsa assumed this was either because Johan was the crown prince or that the rumors about them had spread beyond the castle. She sincerely hoped it was the former.

As they joined the line with the others, the herald trumpets blared to announce the entrance of the king.

"His Royal Majesty, King Magnus of Landvik."

The crowd bowed as the king took his place in front of his throne.

"Thank you all for coming," he said. "Let the ball begin!"

The crowd clapped and the music began to play. The younger royals began to walk toward the dance floor, but the king stopped them.

"Hold on a minute, you six," he said. "I want you all to stay in the ballroom during the ball. No going to a different part of the castle, no going outside. You'll all stay in here until the ball is over."

"Aw, come on, Father. What if we want to escape the crowd for a little while?" Johan protested.

"No, you'll stay right here," the king instructed. "It's the only way to make sure you all are safe."

Johan rolled his eyes. "_Whatever._"

The three couples made their way to the floor just as a waltz began to play. Johan took Elsa's hand in his and put his other hand on her waist. Elsa swallowed nervously as she put her other hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry," Johan laughed. "Just follow my lead. If I can do it, you can do it."

Elsa smiled, recalling that he had said those same words to her at the wedding reception. She stepped lightly as she mirrored his movements, gliding swiftly across the dance floor. She lost herself in his beautiful brown eyes as he led her through the movements. She savored the feeling of being in his arms and dancing on a cloud. She had never felt so free.

After a few songs, they left the dance floor to get some drinks and then tried to find a quiet corner to just talk. But wherever they seemed to go, a crowd would tend to follow. There were young women who wanted to get just one dance with the prince, all of which he politely declined. There were people who wanted to know if the rumors about Elsa's powers were true. She would make some snowflakes dance around in her hand for them, but when they tried to ask more about what happened that summer, she would say that she didn't want to talk about it. And more than anything else, there were people who wanted to know if the rumors about the two of them were true. They were reluctant to reveal much, and certain rumors, like the one that they slept in the same bed, they lied and said weren't true. Certain ones were completely wrong though, like the one that they were _engaged_.

"I can't believe how much rumors get twisted when they pass from person to person," Johan said when they finally found themselves at a table with a moment alone.

"Yeah," Elsa agreed. "I can't believe people actually believe them! I'm pretty sure that you and I haven't been together long enough to get engaged."

"Yeah, not quite," Johan said, chuckling.

Elsa sighed. "I wish we could get away from all of these people, though," she said. "If only we could go outside for a walk or something. Just to be alone for a little while."

"I know, but we can't," Johan reminded her. "My father gave us strict orders to stay here, remember?"

"Yes, but... I'm not quite feeling all that well," she said, dramatically touching the back of her hand to her forehead.

Johan didn't catch her sarcasm. "Are you alright?" he asked with concern.

"Honestly, Johan, darling, it's too hot in here and I feel like I may swoon," she continued. "If I could only get some... _fresh air _I would feel so much better."

The prince smirked as he caught on to the act and played along. "Well, of course, my lady," he said, standing up, and then pretending to help her stand as she stood on her own. "If it is fresh air you want, then I will certainly oblige!"

They made their way to a door out of sight of the king where a young guard stood at his post. As they pretended to casually walk toward the door without noticing him, he stopped them.

"No one is allowed in any other part of the castle until the ball is over," he said. "The king's orders."

"But I need fresh air," Elsa said. "Or I feel that I may swoon. Surely you wouldn't want me to swoon, would you?"

The young guard blushed as she batted her eyes at him. "Of-of course not, ma'am," he stuttered, "but the king strictly ordered-"

"Well I'm your crown prince, and _I_ strictly order that you let us out so we can take a few minutes in the garden for Queen Elsa to catch her breath!" Johan scolded.

The guard hesitated. "But... the king said-"

"I already took it up with the king," Johan lied, "and he said that we could go out for a few minutes."

The guard opened his mouth to give a counterargument, but when he could think of none, he simply ended up staring at them for a moment.

Elsa, who had been panting and fanning herself with her hand, let out a dramatic sigh and let her eyes roll into her head as she dramatically fell into Johan's arms.

"Elsa!" Johan cried as he lifted her into his arms bridal style. "_Now_ would you please let us out?" he said to the guard.

The guard nodded in panic a quickly opened the door.

"Thank you very much," Johan said as he walked past him, carrying Elsa in his arms. "We will only be a few minutes, so please let us back in when we return."

The guard nodded, and Johan started walking down the hallway. He waited for the door to close, and then muttered, "Idiot."

Elsa smiled at him as he put her down onto her feet. "Well that worked better than I thought it would," she admitted.

"Yeah, me too," Johan said. "That wasn't good acting at all!"

Elsa smirked and raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you saying I'm a bad actress?"

Johan looked at her, startled. "What? No!"

"I think you are!" she challenged.

"No, of course not, Elsa! I would never-"

He stopped as he noticed she was laughing.

"Relax," she said. "I'm just teasing. Besides, it's true anyway."

"No it's not!" he said.

"Yes it is!" she replied.

They both stopped as they heard footsteps coming from around the corner. Johan hurriedly pulled Elsa into a space between two columns that was covered by a curtain. They held their breaths as the footsteps walked past, got softer and disappeared.

They looked at each other and quietly laughed in relief.

"It was probably a guard," Elsa said.

"Yeah," he agreed. Then he noticed how close together they were in the tight space. He smiled at her, a hint of mischief sparkling in his eye. "Alone at last!"

She raised an eyebrow at him, smirking. "What's that smile for?"

"This," he said as he leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck as she melted into the kiss, and she shivered as his fingers trailed down her spine. She let him explore her mouth with his tongue as she dug her fingers into his hair. They only broke away to catch their breath for a moment before he started to plant kisses on her face, neck, and down to her exposed collarbone. She moaned as she pulled him back up to kiss her lips again.

Then they heard voices.

"Any sign of trouble?"

"No, sir. All is normal."

"Very good."

Elsa and Johan let the voices pass before they looked at each other and quietly laughed.

"We should get out of here," Johan suggested.

"Yeah," Elsa agreed. "Let's go."

They quietly stepped out from behind the curtain and walked down the hallway. They were careful to not be seen by any guards, except for the one they had to convince to let them in the garden. Once they were out there, they sat on the bench by the fountain and gazed up at the clear night sky. Neither of them said anything for a few minutes. Then, Elsa broke the silence.

"Johan?"

"Hmm?"

"Assuming everything eventually calms down, what do you think lies in the future for us?"

Johan looked at her, surprised. "What brought this up?"

"I don't know," Elsa admitted. "It just happened to cross my mind."

The prince sighed. "To tell you the truth, I don't know," he said. "I mean... we both know the potential reason this might not work?"

Elsa nodded. "I wish we didn't have that complication."

"Yeah," Johan agreed. "_Details._"

Elsa chuckled. "I know," she said. "It's so annoying, everything that's expected of both of us."

"Unfortunately, there's only so much we can do about it," he said.

They sat in silence for a moment before she spoke up again. "_Is_ marriage something you see as being a possibility for the future?"

Johan sighed. "I really don't know," he said. "I mean, I _want_ to think that it is, but with everything that's been going on..."

He stared at the ground in front of him as he trailed off. Elsa put her hand on his shoulder.

"I wouldn't want you to give up everything you've worked for, for me," she said.

He looked up at her. "But I would do that for you. I love you."

She smiled sadly. "Well, I just don't want you to think you _have_ to," she said.

Johan sighed. "Well, I don't want to decide on anything yet," he said. "It's still too soon."

"Then you don't have to," she replied. "I'm not going to push anything on you."

He smiled at her. "Thanks," he said. Then he sighed. "We should probably go back inside."

"Alright," Elsa said, standing.

They walked down the path in silence. Nothing made a sound except for the waves crashing on the shore. Then, there was a rustling in the bushes on their left that separated the garden from the forest.

Elsa turned her head to look. "What was that?" she whispered.

"I don't know," Johan replied.

Elsa walked over to the bush where the rustling was coming from, and she pushed apart the branches to get a better look. There on the ground was a little boy, no more than eight-years-old, trying to get his pant leg off of the branch it had gotten caught on. He gasped when he saw her, and his eyes went wide with fear.

"What are you doing out here?" Elsa said softly. The boy didn't respond, too scared-to-death to do anything. "Are you lost? Are you trying to find your family somewhere?"

She tried to move closer to him, and he tried to move away, but his pant leg was still caught on the bush.

"It's alright," Elsa said. "We're not going to hurt you."

Johan, who had been watching over Elsa's shoulder, took a good look at the boy. "Wait a minute," he muttered.

The boy tried to yank his leg free, while simultaneously trying to reach for something at his waist. He pulled from his belt a dagger, which he held out in front of him as if to look threatening.

Elsa's eyes went wide, and she slowly backed away from the boy without taking her eyes off of him. Johan put his arm in front of her as it dawned on them who they were dealing with.

This boy was a Jacobsen.

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**Don't forget to leave your comments! ;-)**

_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	21. Chapter 20

**A/N: Okay, so I know how I keep talking up how behind I am (it's just cause I'm paranoid that people will think I abandoned the story if I don't update on time!), but just so I can feel better that we're all on the same page here, I'm gonna give you the rundown: I probably won't be ready to post the next chapter by Saturday. By Sunday I probably will be, but for the rest of next week after that, all bets are completely off, because next week is band camp (which, for those of you who don't know, is the longest and most intense week of the year for a marching band member). After camp is over, I'll work on trying to get back on track and finish up this story.**

***sigh* Okay, I feel better now. In the meantime, here's this chapter for you to read. And also (and I don't want to nag, so I'm only gonna say this once), don't forget to leave your feedback! It can be good or bad, I don't really care! I just like to see your reviews so I know you guys are actually out there!... Okay, now I'm done! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I guess I'll just say, 'I don't own Frozen', even though that's such an overused phrase.**

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Johan and Elsa were locked in a staring contest with the boy. None of them moved for several moments. The boy had not lowered his knife, but he did not seem like he could muster up the nerve to try to attack them. He seemed more inclined to run away, but he couldn't get himself to move, despite the fact that he had long since freed his pant leg from the bush.

Slowly, Johan began to inch his way forward.

"Alright, take it easy there," he said softly as the boy tried to stay away from him. "Just give me the knife, and you can come with us. We're not gonna hurt you."

The boy shook his head as he got his footing and turned around to start running into the forest. He slipped, though, when Elsa created a patch of ice under his feet. Johan wrapped one arm around the boy's waist from behind and used his free hand to wrestle the knife from the boy's grip. He slid the knife under his own belt while keeping a firm grip on the boy as he tried to run away. He grabbed him by the front of his shirt and carried him back into the garden, as the boy flailed his limbs in a desperate attempt to get free.

"Put him down and turn him towards me," Elsa said.

Johan obliged and held the boy under both arms as Elsa bent down to be at eye level with him. The boy kept struggling, and Elsa put her hand on his shoulder to try to get his attention.

"Please, calm down!" she said gently. "We need to ask you a few things."

The boy stared at her for a moment, panting from his effort to escape, and he physically relaxed as he realized he couldn't get away.

Elsa took a moment to take in his appearance. He was very thin, more so than a boy that age should be. And his dirty body and ragged clothes showed that he had not been well taken care of.

"What is your name?" Elsa asked.

The boy hesitated, somewhat taken aback by the question.

"It's alright," Elsa said, trying to calm him a bit more. "I'm not asking anything else yet. I just want to know your name."

"Fredrick," the boy said.

"And are you related to a man known as Gustav Jacobsen?" Johan said, his tone not quite as gentle as Elsa's.

"Yes," Fredrick said. "Yes, he's my uncle."

"Did he send you here?" Elsa said.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"To sneak into the castle through the secret passageway in the wall."

Johan furrowed his brow. He knew exactly what secret passageway Fredrick was talking about. He had discovered it as a child, and it was too small for anyone other than a child to fit through.

"How do you know about that?" he said.

"My cousin told my uncle about it," Fredrick replied.

"Your cousin?" Elsa inquired.

The boy nodded. "Noah."

Elsa glanced at Johan, who was clearly surprised, before she turned back to Fredrick.

"Is Noah helping your uncle with this attack?" she asked.

The boy hesitated. "Uh... sort of."

"What do you mean?"

He swallowed. "Well, he's not exactly helping with the actual attack, but..." He trailed off, unsure how to explain.

"Let me put it this way," Johan said. "Did Noah willingly give your uncle information?"

"Not exactly," Fredrick said. "When my older brothers, sisters, and cousins broke him out of prison, they brought him back to our house and my uncle had him tied to a chair. But then he sent the rest of us away."

"Then how do you know he got the information from Noah?" Johan said.

"Well, a little while later, my brother and I snuck downstairs to get an apple, and we could hear all the yelling from the room, so we watched through a little hole in the wall. My uncle was trying to get information about the castle security from him and he eventually gave in."

"What made him give in?" Elsa asked.

Fredrick looked into her eyes, and she could tell that what he had seen had scared him.

"Daniel had the princess at gunpoint."

Elsa and Johan both gasped and sent frightened glances at each other.

The boy sighed. "I heard Noah say, 'Don't hurt her and I'll tell you what you want to know.' Then he started telling him about ways to get into the castle."

"What exactly did he tell him about, other than the secret passageway?" Johan asked.

"I don't remember," Fredrick replied. "But that's when my brother and I realized how serious all this was."

"Are you afraid of your uncle?" Elsa said. "Are you helping him because you're afraid he'll hurt you if you don't?"

"Well, at first we were all helping him because he told us that it was our duty, our honor. But now, yes, most of us are afraid."

Elsa looked at him with pity, and then she looked up at Johan. "What are we going to do?"

Johan thought for a moment before he suddenly gasped. "The ball!" he cried. "We have to warn them!"

"Oh my gosh, you're right!" Elsa exclaimed. "Bring him and come on!"

Elsa stood up and started toward the door, while Johan grabbed Fredrick under the arm and pulled him along. The queen got the guard at the door to let them in, and Johan stopped to tell him what happened.

"Alert the captain that the suspects are here," he instructed. "We found this boy hiding in the bushes and we are taking him to the king. There are others here somewhere and they have inside information about the castle, so search everywhere."

"Right away, Your Highness!" the guard said before running off.

Elsa entered the ballroom to see that nothing of importance had happened while they were gone. She saw Anna, Kristoff, Leah, and Isak standing nearby. Anna noticed Elsa enter and walked over.

"Elsa, we were wondering where you guys were. Did you sneak out?"

Elsa nodded. "Yeah, and we found out we have a problem."

Anna noticed Johan coming in behind Elsa, with Fredrick in tow. "Who's the kid?" she asked.

"We can explain. Come on!"

Anna followed them as they headed toward the throne, and the others followed suit in the suspicion that something was wrong.

"Father!" Johan cried as he approached the king.

"Johan? What's wrong?" he said.

"Elsa and I were out in the gardens when-"

"Johan!" the king interrupted. "I told you to stay in the ballroom!"

"You can yell at me later!" Johan said. "But when we were out there, we found this boy in the bushes-" He motioned toward Fredrick, who stood there cowering in fear. "-and when we tried to help him, he pulled a knife on us!"

"What!?" the king cried as he stared at the boy in horror.

"He's one of them, Father! They're here!"

"We need to alert the captain immediately!" the king instructed.

"I already sent someone," Johan replied.

"We'll find them yet! They have lost their element of surprise!"

"But Father, there's another issue," Johan said. "They have inside information about the castle and ways to get in past the guards."

The others quietly gasped when he said this, knowing what that meant.

The king scowled. "_Noah_," he concluded.

"It's not what you think though!" Johan said. "They had to coax the information out of him!"

"Then why did he give in?"

"Because they were threatening to hurt Julie!"

The king's expression softened as he realized how much had gone into this. Johan turned his gaze to Elsa and the others, who all glanced at each other in total silence.

Then, he heard Fredrick gasp and felt him slightly move within his grasp.

"What's wrong?" he said staring down at the boy, who clutched his hair with his free hand and stared blankly out in front of him.

Then, Elsa gasped. Anna bent over her as she dropped to her knees with her hands on her head and her eyes squeezed shut.

"Elsa?" Johan said.

Suddenly, someone in the crowd screamed at the top of their lungs. Every head in the room turned in that direction to see what was going on, until another person on the other side of the room started screaming as well.

"What's going on?" the king said, startled.

Then, suddenly, Johan felt it, along with everyone else in the room. It was like a sudden splitting headache had overcome him, only it didn't feel natural. He held his head with his hand and felt his grip on Fredrick loosen.

Elsa could barely hear the screams that echoed through the ballroom as people felt the pain. It had overcome her quickly because she had felt it before and immediately recognized the sensation. It was the sensation that she had always felt before hearing the voice. Gustav Jacobsen was trying to send them a message.

Then the voice came, and everyone could hear it.

_I know many of you are frightened as I speak, as you know that I am near. But it is not my wish to spill blood tonight. I have only one goal. I now speak directly to King Magnus and his family. It would be such a pity for there to be bloodshed over the crown that you wear. When I arrive there to take what will be mine, surrender the throne to me, and I will leave everyone else untouched. Surrender the throne to me, and the lives of your citizens will be spared. If you do not, I will kill every one of you, along with anyone who tries to protect you from me. I will be there soon._

As the voice faded and everyone felt normal again, commotion arose in the crowd. Many were talking at once, a sense of panic in their voices.

"Everyone please remain calm!" King Magnus's voice rang through the hall. The chatter quieted slightly as everyone listened to him. "The guards will begin evacuating you immediately. If you would all please be patient and follow any instructions that are given to you, then we can get you all to safety as quickly as possible."

The guests began to file out as the guards directed them toward the main doors. Johan handed Fredrick to the nearest guard and walked over to where Elsa stood.

"Elsa," he said, gripping her shoulders, "you three need to get out of here!"

"What!?"

"He's not after you right now, but if you stay here he will be! You, Anna, and Kristoff need to flee to Arendelle while you still can!"

"No, I'm not leaving you here, Johan!"

The prince opened his mouth to protest, but he stopped when a peculiar smell his his nostrils. He sniffed the air as it became stronger.

"What is that smell?" he said, as he looked around to figure out where it was coming from. He followed his nose to the door behind and to the right of the throne, the same door that they had entered through earlier. The guards that were standing there had backed up from the door and drew their swords. Johan slowly inched closer to it until he could hear something burning. His eyes widened as he realized what was on the other side of that door. He turned around and sprinted back to the others.

"It gunpowder!" he yelled. "Everyone duck and cover!"

He grabbed Elsa's hand as they all ran to duck behind the pillars on the opposite side of the throne.

The explosion went off before they could reach them, though, and Johan pulled Elsa close to him and shielded her from the blast with his body. All of them were knocked off their feet, and they tried to brace themselves as they hit the floor.

All of the guests who were still in the hall screamed and started running and pushing each other out of the way to get out. Nearly every guard in the castle had come running into the ballroom.

As the rumble of the explosion dissipated and his ears started to stop ringing, Johan looked up. The wooden door was in splinters, and the two guards that were near it had started running too late and now lay unconscious on the floor.

From the wreckage, about a dozen teenagers and children came running in with crossbows and swords in some of their hands. The guards started fighting with them, and they proved themselves to be more of a challenge than the guards had first thought.

Several more of them emerged from the fleeing crowd, pushing people out of their way as they went. They engaged in the fighting and were careful to make sure none of their siblings or cousins were hurt.

Johan looked at the other royals as they all got up to start fighting. Kristoff, Anna, and Leah started punching at anyone who came at them. Elsa tried holding them off with her powers, but they were very fast, and she was being timid in fear of hurting anyone.

Johan, Isak, and King Magnus all picked up swords from guards who had been knocked out, and Johan engaged in a sword fight with a boy who seemed to be around eighteen. Looking to his side, he saw two twin girls that were about fourteen take out the guard that had been holding Fredrick and guide the boy to safety.

Elsa began to notice that the children had surrounded all of the royals around the throne, and they were doing everything they could to keep the guards from getting to them.

"Stop!" someone yelled.

Everyone froze and looked to the main doors. There stood a middle-aged man with brown hair and the stubble of a beard growing on his face. His piercing hazel eyes stared down the scene, and no one dared move. They knew that this man was Gustav Jacobsen, the man who had attacked the queen on the beach. This time, Elsa was sure of it.

"Drop you weapons," he said, glaring at the king.

King Magnus simply glared back. "What makes you think we would surrender so easily?" he sneered.

To their surprise, Gustav simply smirked and called behind him over his shoulder. "Daniel?"

At that moment, Gustav's oldest loyal child walked in, pushing a terrified girl in front of him. His arm was wrapped around her shoulders, and in his free hand was his pistol, which he rested on her neck.

Johan eyes widened. "Julie."

Gustav turned back to the royals, who stared at the princess with panic in their eyes.

"Now drop your weapons and tell your guards to stand down," he repeated. "Or your precious princess dies."

For a few moments, nobody moved. The king looked into his daughter's eyes, which were filled with panic. She silently mouthed 'no', but he wasn't about to let her down again.

He slowly lowered his sword, not for a moment taking his eyes off of her. "Stand down," he said, but the guards hesitated. "Stand down!" he said again, and this time, everyone immediately obliged and dropped their weapons to the floor.

Johan looked around as he put down his sword. He could see that several guards had been killed and were now lying on the floor. Surprisingly, though, none of Gustav's children had been killed, although several of them had been severely injured.

Gustav smiled and laughed evilly at his. "Finally," he said. "After generations of oppression on my family, now the royal family will at last be forced to bow to me!"

"Not if I have something to say about it!"

Much of the room gasped, and even Gustav seemed surprised by the voice that came from behind him. He scowled as he turned around to face him.

There, in the doorway, stood Noah, with a crossbow pointed at his father.

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**_Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63_**


	22. Chapter 21

**A/N: I survived band camp! I had fun, but I remember now why I always question whether or not I'll survive. Highlights of the week were Thursday's pizza party, Friday's pool party, and also on Friday we did the ice bucket challenge! :-D There were lots of other funny things that happened last week, but I'm not gonna sit here and bore you with my "This one time at band camp..." stories. Instead, I'm going to let you read the story you came here to read!**

**Real quick, as far as updating, at this point, I'm gonna try my best to update when I can. We're coming up on the end of this story, so I'd like to try to finish it before school starts next Thursday (Ugh! Shortest! Summer! EVER!), but I still have a fair amount of summer homework to do (UGH!) so all I'm gonna say is I'll try my best to write as fast as I can. But for now, since I left you on that cliffhanger, cue the dramatic music, because it's time for a showdown!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Frozen. Never have, never will.**

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"So, you managed to escape," Gustav said matter-of-factly.

Noah shrugged. "It wasn't that hard."

From behind him, a girl stepped out, who was clearly the triplet to the two girls who saved Fredrick. She cowered under the glare that her father was giving her.

"Amalie, I'm going to deal with you later!" Gustav said.

"You won't deal with her later!" Noah said, while Amalie ran to her sisters. "The only one you have to deal with is me!"

"Really?" Gustav said, clearly amused. "Something tells me that shouldn't be that hard."

Noah heard Daniel's gun click behind him, and he saw his brother pointing it at him, still holding onto Julie. He looked around to see the children's crossbows aimed at him ready to fire.

"You may think you can fight me by yourself," his father said, "but as you can see, you are clearly outnumbered."

Noah lowered his crossbow and walked toward Daniel. "Am I?" he said, looking into his brother's eyes. In them, behind the facade of anger and fearlessness, he could see all the pain in the world. "Daniel," he said, "you know as well as I do that what you're doing is wrong." He stepped away and looked around as he raised his voice. "All of you do! And yet you still stand here attacking innocent people. Why is that?"

He circled around his father, walking by the children as he spoke.

"Is it that you think it is your duty, your _purpose_ in life to do anything your father commands, even if it requires you to put your lives in danger? Do you truly believe that? Maybe you think you're paying off a debt! Maybe you think that because the man you see standing in the center of this room loved you all as his children, then you owe him everything. But if that man truly did love you, would he have forced you to put your lives in this kind of danger when most of you are years away from being of age?"

He glanced at his father, who stared at him angrily, but seemed to want to hear where he was going with this.

"I'm not accusing you all of being evil," Noah continued. "You are not evil people. You have simply been lead to cherish the beliefs of an evil man. A man who seeks to avenge the wrongdoing against an ancestor from centuries ago. But what is there to avenge? The royals that stand around that throne are not the ones who denied help to our ancestor. They have done no wrong. All of this has gone far beyond the desire to avenge him. All of that is ancient history. All this comes down to now is one man's lust for power, and his willingness to do anything to get it. You have all, by no fault of your own, become his pawns, his soldiers. He has induced fear in all of you to force you to follow him. But you need not fear him any longer, for he has nowhere left to run and nothing left to hide."

Noah stopped as he stood between his father and the throne. He glanced up at Johan, the friend who had saved him from living the life that these children had lived.

Johan held Elsa's hand tighter as he stared back at him. All of the secrets that his mysterious friend would never tell him over the years had suddenly come to light, and he could finally see what a noble and wise person he really was.

Suddenly, they heard a chuckle from the center of the room. Noah turned around to see his father laughing.

"What an inspirational speech, my son," he said. "But as you can see, they don't believe it."

"Are you sure?" Noah said, looking around again at the children. They hadn't lowered their weapons, but Noah could defiantly see that something had changed in their eyes. "Do you think that these children are truly loyal to you? Yes they follow your orders, but only because they are afraid of you'll do to them if they don't. But if you were to tell them to kill themselves in respect for you, do you honestly think they would do it?"

Gustav didn't say anything. He shifted his eyes back and forth, looking around at the children. Noah could tell that his father was becoming uneasy as they once again met eyes.

"You stand alone," Noah said, "and that has always been your greatest mistake."

His father glared at him. "So what are you going to do?" he challenged. "Are you still going to try and fight me?"

"Only if you force me to," Noah replied. "But, if you stand down now, there is a chance your life may be spared."

"I will not surrender in my moment of triumph!" Gustav said. "Whether I stand alone or have an army behind me, I will defeat you, and every member of the royal family!" His eyes scanned over the royals before finally settling on Elsa. She took half a step back as he stared her down. "And I'll kill any little ice witch that gets in my way!"

That was all he had to say for Johan to lose his self-restraint. He picked up his sword and started running at Gustav, who barely flinched when he saw the prince move.

"Johan, no!" Noah yelled as he ran past him. When Johan didn't stop, Noah did the only thing he felt he could do. He lifted his crossbow, aimed it, and fired.

Johan collapsed to the ground as the arrow lodged into his leg, his sword clattering as it hit the floor.

"Johan!" Elsa yelled as she started running toward him.

Before Johan could react, Gustav had pulled out his sword and was standing over him, ready to strike. But his swing was interrupted when Noah blocked him with Johan's sword that he had picked up.

All at once, as father and son became locked in a fierce dual, the fighting broke out again. The guards began to get the better of the children, and one by one, they rounded them up.

Elsa and Anna helped Johan up, with Kristoff making sure nobody attacked them while they did.

"Don't worry about me; I'll be fine," Johan said. "I have to go help!"

"No, Johan, you can't!" Elsa replied. "We're taking you to the infirmary right now!"

Johan shook his head. "I don't need to go to the infirmary!"

"YOU HAVE AN ARROW IN YOUR LEG!"

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ballroom, Leah, Isak, Magnus, and several of the guards were surrounding Daniel and Julie. He held his gun out at them, but he couldn't seem to find it in him to shoot. He looked around desperately to try to find a means of escape, until he finally met Leah's eyes.

"Please!" she begged.

Finally, the guilt overcame him. He lowered his gun and released the princess, before the guards took him into custody. Leah was the first one to get to her sister and embrace her.

"Julie, I thought I'd never see you again!" she cried.

Julie smiled as the tears ran down her cheeks. She moved to hug Isak, and then her father.

"Oh, Julie," the king said, "I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay," she replied. "I love you, Papa."

Back in the center of the room, Noah was slowly beginning to overcome his father. He knew that he was the only one that knew Gustav's fighting style well enough to defeat him.

Gustav was getting worried as his son figured out all of his tricks. But he wasn't about to let Noah see that.

With one final swing of his sword, Noah slashed Gustav's hand, causing the latter to drop his weapon. He pushed his father down on the floor, holding him down with one foot on his chest. All attention in the room shifted to them at that moment. Noah held his sword at his father's neck, and Gustav glared back up at him.

"Do it!" he growled.

Noah didn't move. Part of him wanted to do it. Part of him wanted to end it right here and now. But he knew that killing his father wouldn't prove anything.

He took his foot off of his father and motioned for some of the guards to come pick him up. Gustav didn't move for a moment, stunned and angered that Noah didn't kill him right there. He stood up and tried to lunge at him, but the guards had a hold of his arms. He shifted his eyes around the room, until they finally settled on Julie. He smirked as he noticed a crossbow on the floor near him as he was led away.

"Maybe at least I can get one small conciliation prize!" he yelled. He used his shoulders to push down the two guards holding him and picked up the crossbow. He quickly aimed at the princess and pulled the trigger.

"NO!" Noah yelled, as he realized what was happening. He ran quickly to try to save her, and gasped as he suddenly felt the arrow in his shoulder.

"Noah!" Julie yelled, running toward him. The guards quickly took hold of Gustav again, who grunted in defeat as they led him away. Julie bent down next to Noah, who had collapsed to his knees in pain.

"Julie," he said. "I'm sorry I caused all of this."

Julie shook her head. "You didn't cause all of this, and you know it!" she said. "Come on, let's get you to the infirmary."

"Thank you," he said as she helped him up.

She smiled and placed a small kiss on his cheek. "I think I'm the one who should be thanking you."

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**Don't forget to review! **

_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	23. Chapter 22

**A/N: Man, I had to completely reinstall my fanfiction app this morning cause of that darn update! It kept crashing when I tried to log in! I'll bet any of you who have the app know what I'm talking about! Anyway, after this chapter, there is actually only one chapter left. (I was gonna make it two, but then I realized they would both be really short so...) That should be posted on Saturday or Sunday. As for this chapter... I can't really say much except that you might be surprised by how it ends. Let me know what your thoughts are in your reviews.**

**Disclaimer: Haven't we been through this before? I don't own Frozen!**

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Julie led Noah into the infirmary, where Johan was already lying on a bed with his leg wrapped up.

"Johan!" Noah cried. "I'm so sorry I shot you! I couldn't let you-"

"No, it's okay!" Johan interrupted. "I know why you did."

Noah smiled as a nurse sat him on the next bed. Elsa and Anna were sitting next to Johan, and Kristoff stood behind Anna. Julie sat down next to Noah. Leah, Isak, and King Magnus filed in and stood around the two beds.

None of them said much as the nurses removed the arrow from Noah's shoulder and patched up the wound. As soon as they finished, the king was the first one to speak up.

"Well," he said. "That was an interesting night."

He turned to look at Noah, who quickly stood up and bowed.

"Your Majesty," he began, "I am truly, deeply sorry for all that has occurred tonight. I am prepared and willing to take full responsibility for all of the lives lost tonight-"

"I wish to offer you a knighthood, Mr. Jacobsen," the king interrupted.

Noah looked up, shocked. "Sir?"

"Noah, my boy, you have saved us all," King Magnus said. "If it weren't for your actions, we would all still be in grave danger from your father, and Princess Julie would more than likely already be dead. You have risked your life to save all of ours. For that we will be forever in your debt."

Noah looked around at the others, who smiled at him. He looked back to the king, smiling in utter disbelief.

"Thank you, sir," he said, bowing again.

"Tomorrow, before the entire kingdom, you shall be knighted Sir Noah of Landvik for your services to the royal family," the king declared. "And I wish for you to stay here in the castle and continue your services by rejoining the palace guard."

"Yes, of course, Your Majesty," Noah said. "As you wish."

King Magnus smiled and put his hand on Noah's good shoulder. "And Noah?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Make sure you take good care of my daughter."

Noah smiled. "Always, sir. You have my word."

"Good," the king replied. "Now go tell her you love her!"

Noah chuckled and turned around to face Julie, who stood up to meet his eyes. He took her hand as they smiled at each other.

"Julie, I love you so, so much," he said.

"I love you, too," she replied, closing the space between their lips. The others in the room smiled, thankful that the lovers were finally able to reconcile.

.:.^*^.:.

Later that night, or rather early the next morning, Noah lay awake on his bed, unable to sleep. He had been let out of the infirmary and had been provided with a guest room to stay in for the night. There was a lot that was weighing heavy on his mind, preventing him from letting his fatigue get the better of him.

All of a sudden he heard a noise out on the balcony. He sat up, and saw through the sheer curtains someone sitting on the railing. Standing up, he pulled back the curtains and was surprised to see his brother sitting there, not looking at him.

"I don't understand, Noah," Daniel said.

Noah waited for him to elaborate, but he didn't. "You don't understand what?"

"Why didn't you kill him?" Daniel asked, turning to look at his brother. "You had every reason to kill him, but you didn't. Why?"

Noah paused for a moment before answering. "Because," he said, "if I killed him, I would have become him. I didn't want to stoop to his level, and killing him myself wouldn't have proven anything."

Daniel nodded as he stared back down at his leg that was propped up on the railing. He let his other leg swing over the side of the balcony as he played with a pebble with his free hand. He sighed.

"They're planning on executing him in three days' time," he said with no emotion in his voice.

"And what of the others?" Noah asked.

"They're letting us go. And they're working to find good homes for the ones that are still underage."

"And what of you?" Noah asked again. "Where will you go? What will you do?"

Daniel sighed. "I'm not sure yet."

Neither of them said anything for a few moments. Noah wondered what Daniel was hiding from him, for he clearly was not saying everything.

"Noah, I'd like to thank you," Daniel finally said.

"For what?" Noah asked.

"For opening my eyes," Daniel replied. "For helping me realize what a monster I've become."

"Daniel, you're not a monster!" Noah said. "You were misguided, and you have the ability to overcome that."

"Do I?" Daniel questioned. "After almost twenty years of that misguidance, it's now what I've become! I should have left with you when we were boys. Now it's too late to change the man our father created."

"No it's not, Daniel," Noah argued. "You have the potential to do something for the world! I know you do!"

Daniel sighed and thought a moment. He got this look in his eye that made Noah feel on edge, and he could tell Daniel was up to something.

"You're right," Daniel finally whispered. "And I know what that thing is."

He pulled his gun from its holster and rested it in the palm of his hand. He stared at it for a few moments, and his breathing became heavy and ragged. Finally, he sighed and closed his eyes.

"Before I do this, know that I'm sorry," he said. "I'm going to finish this." He looked back up at Noah one last time. "Goodbye."

With that, he leapt off his perch and into the tree. Noah stood there dumbfounded for a moment. Then, he realized what his brother was saying.

"What!?" he cried as he ran to the edge of the balcony. He saw that his brother had already scampered down the tree and was swiftly running toward the dungeons. "Daniel, no!"

Without thinking, he ran out his door and sprinted down the hallway.

"Somebody stop him!" he yelled as he ran. "He's gonna kill him!"

One by one, the royals were starting to come out of their rooms, alerted by his yelling. Julie emerged from her room in time to catch Noah's arm and stop him.

"Woah, woah! Slow down there, Noah! What's going on?"

"It's my brother! He's gone completely mad!" he yelled as he broke free of her grip and kept running.

"Noah, wait!" Julie yelled, taking off after him. Anna and Kristoff then emerged from their room and followed to see what the commotion was about.

Johan limped out of his infirmary room on one crutch to see everybody pass, and Elsa, who had fallen asleep next to him, was right behind him.

"What's going on?" he asked Anna, who stopped when she saw them.

"Something with Noah's brother!" she replied. "Noah keeps yelling for someone to stop him!"

"We have to go see what's happening!" Johan said, as he tried to run after them, but he soon dropped his crutch, causing Elsa to have to help him.

"You can't run like that!" she said throwing his arm over her shoulder. "We'll catch up with them, but we can't have you hurting yourself!"

Johan nodded as Anna handed him his crutch and the girls helped him along as fast as they could. When they got out into the courtyard, they could see the others running toward the dungeons, and they could hear Noah screaming his brother's name.

"What do you think Daniel's trying to do?" Elsa asked.

"Maybe he's trying to bust his father out of there," Anna suggested.

Johan shook his head. "No," he said. "Somehow I don't think so."

Suddenly, they heard a gunshot. Immediately following it came yelling from the dungeon guards.

"Gustav Jacobsen is dead!" someone yelled.

The three of them looked at each other.

"Daniel _killed_ him," Johan realized. "Noah wanted to stop him from becoming a murderer."

Neither of the girls said anything. But up ahead of them, they could still hear Noah yelling.

"Daniel!"

"But wait," Elsa said, "why is Noah still acting like he needs to stop him? What does he think Daniel is going to do now?"

Suddenly, a second gunshot rang through the air.

"NO!" Noah cried.

The three of them stopped for a moment and looked at each other. Anna ran ahead to see what happened while Elsa stayed back to help Johan. Neither of them said anything as they followed the voices to find everyone.

As they approached the building, they could hear Noah sobbing in grief from around the corner. They realized that Daniel had shot his father through the barred window near the ground that looked out of the basement cell.

Anna ran back around the corner to meet them, her face showing a mix of shock and sadness.

"Did Daniel get away?" Johan asked, completely out of theories over what was going on.

Anna took a deep breath and shook her head, before looking past the building at the scene again.

Slowly, Johan and Elsa made their way around the corner. Johan's eyes widened when he saw the scene, and Elsa quietly gasped.

Daniel was lying on the ground, and Noah was kneeling over him, sobbing. Julie was kneeling next to him, rubbing his back as he cried, and the others stood there dumbfounded. Daniel's blue eyes were open, but he saw nothing. His gun was on the ground next to him, and there was a bloody hole in the side of his head.

He was dead.

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_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


	24. Chapter 23

**A/N: Hello all, and welcome to the final chapter of "Where the Snowflakes Fall". Yes, it is a sad day. It is the end of this story, and the end of my summer! I go back to school tomorrow! :'-( But hey, all good things mush come to an end! Now, for those of you who follow me, I'm not exactly sure what projects lie in the future for me on this site. I think I'm pretty much out of Frozen ideas, but one way or another, you're definitely not going to see me posting anything else until long after marching band season's over! But for now, we still have to wrap up this story, so let's start here. I'd like to thank you all for your support through this story, and my other stories as well. I wish everyone luck in the upcoming school year, and thank you for reading "Where the Snowflakes Fall".**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen! Not even in my dreams!**

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"I failed him!" Noah cried, as he looked down onto his brother's body.

"No, you didn't," Julie said, trying to comfort him. "You did anything but! You tried your hardest to save him, but in the end, he made his choice."

Noah didn't say anything right away. He couldn't stop his sobbing long enough to get a word in. Julie held him close, as Elsa, Johan, Anna, and Kristoff watched the scene in silence.

"Before he ran out here," Noah explained through his tears, "he came to my window to talk to me. The last thing he said was that he was going to finish this. Now I see that he wanted to eliminate what he saw as the two main threats: our father and himself."

"Noah, it's still not your fault," Julie protested. "He lived a twisted life! He was suffering-"

"I should have saved him from all that when I had the chance!"

"Even if you _could_ have, it happened the way it did, and now he would be suffering with the guilt of his own mistakes!"

Noah started to calm down a little bit to the point where he wasn't yelling anymore. "He did suffer..."

"But at least now his suffering is over," Julie said.

He nodded, and quietly continued to cry as Julie reached out and closed Daniel's eyes. Several guards then rounded the corner and fell silent when they saw Noah mourning. Amount them was Captain Gunnarson, who kneeled down next to Noah with a somber look on his face.

"If you don't mind my asking," he said, "what would you like to be done with your brother's body?"

Noah sniffed and tried to pull himself together somewhat. "I want you to bury him next to our mother," he concluded. "He deserves nothing less."

The captain nodded. "May we?" he said, motioning to Daniel's body.

Noah nodded. The captain gave a signal to two other guards, who picked up the body and carried him away. He put a hand on Noah's shoulder and gave him a reassuring look.

"And, one more thing," the captain said. "What would you like us to do with your father's body?"

"I don't care what you do with _him!_"

.:.^*^.:.

The next morning, Noah was knighted by King Magnus in front of the entire kingdom for his courage, sacrifice, and services to the royal family. Everyone was there to cheer him on, and he tried to enjoy the moment the best he could.

Twenty-four hours later, Elsa stood alone in her room, packing her bag. Elsa had come to love Landvik, and all the friends she had met there. But she and her family had ended up staying there almost two weeks longer than planned, and she knew that it was high time they go home.

After she had packed the last of her things, she sat on the end of the bed and sighed, thinking of Johan. He had stayed with her last night, but he wasn't there when she woke up. He had left a note saying that he would see her before she left. She didn't want to leave him, though. Not again. She remembered how lonely she had felt after he left Arendelle all those years ago. Of course, at least now she had Anna for company, and she knew this time that it wouldn't be the last time she saw him.

A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.

"Come in."

Anna opened the door and smiled sadly at her sister. "Hey," she said. "You ready?"

"Yeah," Elsa replied, standing up. In the hallway, she handed her bag over to a servant and walked with Anna toward the courtyard. "Where's Kristoff?" she asked.

"He's already down there," Anna replied. "You know he gets ready much faster than us."

Elsa chuckled, but soon fell silent again, not able to take her mind off of Johan.

Anna could sense what she was thinking. "You okay?" she asked.

Elsa nodded. "I'll be fine."

They finally entered the courtyard, where Julie, Noah, Leah, Isak, and King Magnus were all waiting to say their goodbyes. Kristoff was already there, making polite conversation with Isak.

They all turned and smiled when they saw the girls there. But for a moment, Elsa felt her heart sink.

"Where's Johan?" she asked.

"He's going to meet you at the docks," Leah replied, eying the others mischievously. "He has a surprise for you."

Elsa and Anna glanced at each other and then looked to Kristoff, who just shrugged. Clearly, there was something going on here that they didn't know about, but they chose to shrug it off for the moment as they said their goodbyes.

Elsa walked up to the king and bowed. "Thank you for accommodating us for so long, Your Majesty," she said.

"Thank _you_ for staying," he replied. "And I would hope that at this point we have come past such formalities, so please, call me Magnus."

Elsa smiled as she hugged the man who reminded her so much of her father.

Anna smiled at Julie. She looked between her and Noah, thinking of how much each of them had been through recently. "Are you two sure you'll be okay?" she asked.

"Of course, we will!" Julie reassured her, taking Noah's hand. "As long as we have each other."

Anna smiled again, and hugged Julie tightly. She knew that she had found a lifelong friend in her.

Elsa hugged Isak, and then Leah. "I'm really gonna miss you guys," she said.

"Aw, don't worry," Leah said. "We'll all be at Anna and Kristoff's wedding, so we'll see you there."

Elsa smiled. "Good," she said. "That does make me feel a little better."

She heard someone cough behind her, and turned to see a young Arendellian guard.

"Excuse me, Your Majesty," he said. "We must be going. The captain says the ship is ready."

Elsa sighed. "Thank you. We'll be over at the carriage in a moment," she said. She turned to look at Anna and Kristoff, who saw in her expression that it was time to go. She turned back to Leah again, and the older girl put a hand on her shoulder.

"We'll see you soon," she said. Elsa hugged her again before walking to the open door of the carriage, with Anna and Kristoff in tow.

"Bye, guys!" Julie called, waving.

Elsa chuckled as she and the others waved back. It reminded her of when she saw Anna waving to Johan when he left Arendelle. They sat down, the door to the carriage was shut, and they were off to their ship. None of them said anything through the short ride, and far too soon, they were at the dock.

As Elsa exited the carriage, she looked around, but there was no sign of Johan.

"Where is he?" she whispered to herself, but Anna heard her.

"I'm sure he's either here or on his way," she replied.

"Your Majesty," a voice said. Elsa turned to see the young captain of her ship standing there. "We are ready to cast off."

"But," Elsa stammered, "we can't. He's not here yet. Johan said he would be here to say goodbye."

"Your Majesty, we can't really wait much longer with the way the tides are," the captain explained. "Please, if you would board the ship now, I will make certain that if anyone sees Prince Johan you will be notified."

Elsa sighed. "Very well," she said as she started up the gangplank. "Thank you, Captain."

The captain bowed as he went to make sure everything was in order. Elsa stood on the deck of the ship, waiting to see any sign of Johan, and beginning to panic when she didn't. Anna stood next to her and put her hand on her shoulder.

"What if he's not coming?" Elsa said, worried.

"I'm sure he will," Anna replied.

"You didn't really think I'd let you leave without saying goodbye, did you?" a voice behind them said.

Elsa turned around in shock to see him standing there on the deck, smiling at her.

"Johan!" she cried, running into his arms. He hugged her tightly as she began to cry. "For a minute, I thought you weren't coming!"

"I wouldn't do that to you," he replied. "Nothing in the world would have kept me from it."

She smiled and kissed him fiercely, withdrawing after a moment since they were in public. She stood there in his embrace for what seemed like forever, but all too soon she heard someone yell, "All aboard!"

She sighed and looked up at him. "You better get going," she said sadly. To her surprise, he just smiled.

"Go?" he said, sarcastically. "But then I'll miss the ship!"

Elsa's eyes went wide, and she backed away for a moment in shock. "_What?_"

"I'm coming with you, Elsa," he said. "I've spent far too long away from you, and I can't do it anymore."

Elsa looked back at Anna, who looked surprised but happy. Then she turned back to Johan, almost speechless. "What are you saying?" she said.

"I want to be with you, Elsa," he said. "I want to spend my life with you."

"But what about your crown?" she said. "You can't give it up yet; it's too soon! What if this doesn't work out for some reason? Or what if, God forbid, something were to happen to me? What would become of you? Or what if-"

"Elsa!" Johan cut her off. She took deep breaths and looked into his honest brown eyes. "First of all, nothing will ever happen to you. I won't let it." That made her smile. "Second, we don't have to worry about that right now. I haven't made any official decisions or signed any papers yet. For now, I just want to be with you, every day, and have nothing matter but our love."

He wiped a tear off her face with his thumb. She smiled as she took it all in.

"Oh, Johan," she said, "I love you so much!"

Johan leaned down and kissed her again. Anna walked away to give them some privacy.

Soon, the ship started to move, and they could see the dock moving away. They stood there in each other's arms for what felt like hours, watching the kingdom get smaller and smaller on the horizon.

Johan smiled as Elsa buried her head into his chest. He stared back at his kingdom, knowing that it would never truly be his. True, he had not yet officially abdicated, but in his heart he had already made his decision. All that mattered to him then was the girl in his arms, and he knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. And now, he couldn't wait to get to her kingdom, Arendelle, the place where the snowflakes fall.

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_**Read on, write on, dream on. -bandgeek63**_


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